Women's Basketball | 1/13/2017 10:05:00 AM

Wingate, N.C.----The Wingate University Bulldogs look to extend their six-game win streak in a crucial South Atlantic Conference encounter versus the Anderson University Trojans from Cuddy Arena and Thomas Koontz Family Court Saturday afternoon for a 2 p.m. tip-off (multimedia links). The Bulldogs and Trojans meet for the first time since Wingate's SAC Tournament Championship victory over Anderson on March 6, 2016.
 
Wingate enters the AU match-up at 11-3 overall and 7-2 in the SAC. Anderson sits at 10-3 overall. The Trojans possess an identical record in conference action. Both teams enter the contest in a three-way tie for second place in the conference standings with Catawba.
 
"Anderson is a very experienced team," Wingate head women's basketball coach Ann Hancock says. "They know how to play and execute really well, along with putting players in positions to be successful. We will need to do a good job of playing our defensive principles, contesting shots without fouling and keeping them off the glass. Anderson is always a tough game and I am sure this one will be as well."
 
Wingate Players to Watch
 
Wingate junior center Marta Miscenko (Riga, Latvia) is always a factor on the court, averaging a double-double with 16.1 points and 10.7 rebounds per game. Miscenko leads the conference with an impressive 44 total blocks on the season. The University of Texas El Paso transfer ranks fifth in the SAC in points per game and second overall with her average rebound total.
 
Sophomore guard/forward Danasia Witherspoon (Hickory, N.C.) averages 12.8 points and 7.4 boards per contest. The Hickory High School graduate is seventh in the conference with her 51.1 percent shooting percentage and 24 total steals in the 2016-17 campaign. Witherspoon also ranks sixth in the SAC individual standings with 49 offensive rebounds.
 
WU sophomore guard Caroline Averette (Midlothian, Va.) and senior guard Shelby Tricoli (Waynesville, N.C.) average 9.8 and 7.8 points per game, respectively. Averette ranks third in the SAC, shooting 53.1 percent from three-point range. Senior guard Alex Tomlinson (Raleigh, N.C.) leads the Bulldogs and is fourth in the conference with 58 total assists in her final season in the Navy Blue and Vegas Gold.
 
Anderson Players to Watch
 
Anderson senior guard/forward Jasmine Franklin (Simpsonville, S.C.) leads all Trojan scorers with 10.8 points through 13 games, while also posting 7.2 rebounds per contest. Senior guard Heather Jankowy (Walhalla, S.C.) is second on the Trojan scoring charts with 10.6 points, four rebounds and 3.2 assists per game.
 
Freshman guard Madison Baggett (Huntsville, Ala.) and senior guard Nakia Young (Taylors, S.C.) have contributed 9.1 and 8.9 points per contest, respectively. Baggett ranks fourth in the SAC with a 51.3 shooting percentage from beyond the arc. Freshman guard Alexy Mollenhauer (Lindale, Texas) and sophomore forward Erika Martin (North Charleston, S.C.) both add 6.2 markers each game.
 
Wingate Coaches
 
The Bulldogs are led by fifth-year head coach Ann Hancock ('92), who returned to the Wingate campus for the 2012-13 season to coach her alma mater. Hancock has compiled a 229-199 career record (UNC Wilmington and Wingate), including mentoring her WU team to a 24-6 overall record in 2013-14 and 21-9 mark a season ago during the 2015-16 campaign. Wingate won the SAC Tournament championship in both seasons. 
 
Prior to returning to her alma mater, Hancock spent two seasons as an assistant women's basketball coach at East Carolina University. Before her tenure with the Pirates, Hancock was head women's basketball coach at UNC Wilmington for 10 seasons and was an assistant coach for eight seasons at UNC Chapel Hill under legendary head coach Sylvia Hatchell. She helped the Tar Heels win the 1994 NCAA Division I National Championship. 
 
Hancock is assisted by new full-time assistant women's basketball coach Celeste Stewart, who spent her previous two seasons as a graduate assistant on the WU coaching staff. Stewart was a basketball student-athlete at East Carolina University. As a point guard for the ECU Pirates, Stewart was named to the first team All-C-USA as a senior. She will use her impressive basketball resume to help lead the Bulldogs to another successful season in 2016-17 and beyond. 
 
Katelyn Grisillo joined the Bulldog coach staff in the summer of 2016 after spending the previous two seasons as the point guard for the University of South Carolina Aiken Pacers. She started in 28 games her senior season. Prior to her arrival at USC Aiken, Grisillo was a student-athlete for the Division I Presbyterian College Blue Hose. Grisillo works with assistant coach Celeste Stewart and the post players.
 
Anderson Coaches
 
The Trojans are led by first-year head coach Jonathon Barbaree who gained 20 years of experience coaching at the collegiate level prior to arriving at Anderson. Barbaree commenced his coaching career as a student assistant for the Georgia College Bobcats. He was a student assistant for three seasons in Milledgeville and then served two more as a graduate assistant before being promoted to full-time assistant coach the next four years.
 
Barbaree then made the transition to the Division I level, as he took over as an assistant coach for the Furman University Paladins in Greenville, S.C. Four years later, he left Furman to serve a five-year stint as an assistant coach at Georgia State University in Atlanta.
 
Barbaree is supported by first-year women's basketball graduate assistant coach Nicole Razor, beginning her first season of collegiate coaching experience. Razor arrives in Anderson, S.C. after being a member of the women's basketball program at Elon University as a student-athlete and assistant.
 
Wingate's Last Game
 
The Wingate Bulldogs earned their sixth consecutive victory in a 59-51 SAC home triumph versus the Catawba College Indians from the friendly confines of Cuddy Arena Wednesday. WU sophomore guard Courtney Robinson (Taylors, S.C.) tallied a career-high 16 points to lead the 'Dogs.
 
Alex Tomlinson contributed 12 points, five rebounds and four assists, while Marta Miscenko added her ninth double-double of the season with 11 markers and 11 boards. Miscenko also shot a season-high 71.4 percent from the floor (five-of-seven accuracy).
 
The 'Dogs swept nearly every major statistical category, outrebounding Catawba 43-32 and maintaining the 14-13 edge in assists. The Wingate bench dominated the Indian reserves 21-6 with the hosts slightly outscoring the visitors 28-26 in the paint. Wingate had an advantage of 12-3 in second-chance buckets.
 
Wingate complied a 39.3 shooting percentage in the contest (24-of-61) while Catawba shot 37.7 from the floor (20-of-53). The Bulldogs connected on 45.5 percent from three-point range (five-of-11), while the WU defense held the Indians to only 25 percent connectivity from beyond the arc (four-of-16).
 
The hosts led wire-to-wire for the majority of the contest, grabbing their first double-digit advantage of the contest at 38-28 with 7:55 left in the third quarter of play. Wingate would not lead by more than 10 points in the stanza, maintaining the 47-37 mark with 1:35 remaining. The Bulldogs maintained a narrow 47-41 lead entering the final quarter.
 
The Bulldogs took an 11-point lead (52-41) on a three-pointer from Caroline Averette at the 6:51 mark. A free throw from Shelby Tricoli gave the 'Dogs a commanding 12-point advantage with 6:51 to go in the frame. The Tricoli charity toss gave Wingate its largest lead of the evening. Catawba would not get any closer than eight points for the remainder of the quarter as Wingate held on for the victory.
 
Anderson's Last Game
 
The host Anderson Trojans fell to the ninth-ranked and undefeated Lincoln Memorial University Railsplitters by a final score of 67-58 on their home court Wednesday. Jasmine Franklin led the AU scoring efforts with 11 points, while Nakia Young and junior forward Kaylee Koerperich (New Bern, N.C.) contributed nine points each. The loss snapped Anderson's previous five-game win streak over Lincoln Memorial.
 
Anderson held LMU to only 29.2 percent shooting in the contest (19-of-65 accuracy). The Trojan bench outscored the Lincoln Memorial substitutes 24-8, while maintaining the slight 8-4 advantage in the assist category. The Trojans were outrebounded in the contest for only the fourth time in the 2016-17 campaign.
 
The contest featured eight ties and six lead changes with Anderson shooting 60.7 percent from the charity stripe (17-of-28) compared to LMU's 70.3 percent from the free-throw line (26-of-37).
 
Last Season's Match-up
 
The Wingate Bulldogs were victorious twice in the three-game season series versus Anderson during the 2015-16 season. The Trojans were nationally-ranked in each of the three meetings, ranking 14th in the first meeting, 21st in the second and 25th in the top 25 poll when both squads faced each other in the SAC Championship.
 
The 'Dogs fell to the Trojans in the first meeting by a narrow margin of 89-87 on Jan. 16, 2016 from the Abney Athletic Center on the AU campus. Wingate split the regular-season series with a 73-62 bounce-back from Cuddy Arena on Feb. 27, 2016. Danasia Witherspoon led the hosts with 14 points, five rebounds and two steals. Miscenko added 10 points and WU guard Taziya Moody (Columbia, S.C.) contributed nine markers in the victory.
 
Both teams reunited in one of the biggest games of the season from the SAC women's basketball tournament championship game in Greenville, S.C. The Anderson Trojans were the defending conference champions from the 2014-15 campaign entering the critical match-up.
 
In the SAC Championship meeting, the Bulldogs earned their first conference crown since the 2013 season in a tightly-contested 67-61 victory from Timmons Arena on the Furman University campus. WU junior forward Kristina Rumplasch (Mount Airy, N.C.) led all scorers with 16 points as the 'Dogs won their (then) 11th consecutive game. Tricoli earned SAC Tournament MVP with 13 points and Courtney Robinson tallied nine markers. Eleven Wingate student-athletes played in the contest with 10 finding the scoring column.
 
The Bulldogs shot 42.6 percent from the floor (23-of-56) while the WU defense held Anderson to only 27.6 percent shooting (16-of-58). The Wingate bench dominated the AU reserves by a convincing margin of 39-5 and outscored the Trojans 22-12 in the paint. The 2016 SAC tournament champions also converted 27 points off 16 Anderson turnovers.
 
WINGATE UNIVERSITY

Wingate University, consistently ranked as a top 10 "best value" in the South by U.S. News & World Report, serves more than 3,200 students on three campuses in Wingate, Charlotte and Hendersonville, N.C. Founded in 1896, the University offers 35 undergraduate majors, 35 minors, 12 career concentrations, nine pre-professional programs, master's degrees in accounting, business, education, physician assistant studies and sport management and doctorates in education, pharmacy and physical therapy.
 
With a 14 to 1 student/teacher ratio, Wingate students gain the tools and support needed to excel in academics and apply that learning toward an extraordinary career and life. To view current news, video and story ideas, visit www.youtube.com/wingateuniversity. 
 
In addition to a robust intramural athletics program, Wingate student athletes compete in 22 NCAA Division II sports. The University has won the South Atlantic Conference Echols Athletic Excellence Award for the past 10 years. For more information, go to www.wingate.edu.
 
Wingate is first among NCAA Division II Academic All-America®-producing colleges in the 2000's with 88 selections. Among North Carolina's colleges and universities, Wingate is number one in this millennium with 88 Academic All-America® honorees. Wingate is tops among all SAC schools with 97 lifetime Academic All-America® picks. For more information on WU athletics, go to www.wingatebulldogs.com.
 
(Wingate University athletic media relations/sports network student assistant Jackson Kaplan contributed this article. A sophomore from Raleigh, Kaplan is a Communication Studies major at Wingate. He is the son of Harrison and Dona Kaplan.)