[Women's Basketball] WBB Gameday Preview: Falcons celebrate Senior Night tomorrow vs. Southwestern

The Lowdown: Southwestern College at Friends University

Location: Garvey Center

When: Saturday, Feb. 18 @ 5 pm

Broadcast: https://kcacnetwork.com/friends/   

Live Stats: https://bit.ly/3k4Y10u

Flying with the Falcons: The Friends University Falcons snapped a four-game losing skid with a 75-66 overtime victory over the York University Panthers Wednesday evening (Feb. 15) inside the Garvey Center. McKenzie Shippy converted a big three-point play at the 4:14 mark of the overtime period to give the Falcons the lead for good.  Friends held York scoreless for the final 4:36 of the extra session.  

Taylor Jackson, last season's KCAC Freshman of the Year, continues to be a force inside with 10.9 ppg, a team-high 9.9 rebounds that is second in the KCAC along with an NAIA-leading 3.3 blocks per game.

Shippy is enjoying a breakout season offensively and is scoring a team-high 11.6 ppg, with Gracie Sammons dishing out a team-leading 2.2 assists per game.

Scouting the Lady Builders: The Southwestern College Lady Builders have lost nine straight games and are 4-23 overall and 1-20 in the KCAC. The Lady Builders lone conference win was also last their victory, 61-49 over Avila University back on Jan. 14.

Macey Pond leads Southwestern in both points (12.2 ppg) and assists (2.0 apg), with Christy Wiebe also averaging double-figure points with 11.1 ppg. D'Shonda Hunt leads the Lady Builders this season with 8.1 rebounds per game.     

The Series: The Falcons escaped the Lady Builders on the road in overtime in the first meeting this season and have now won 15 straight in the series, including an 80-55 victory in last season's KCAC tournament first round matchup.

Quoting Head Coach Dean Jaderston:  

"It feels like just yesterday we were starting the season. Now we're at our final regular season game.  It's an especially emotional one since these seniors all came when I did. We're playing a team that we can't take lightly. They pushed us to overtime in our first meeting and they have nothing to lose. We need to keep getting our offense untrained and stay in attack mode all game.  We want to be playing our best basketball going into the playoffs."

Board Work: The Falcons' Taylor Jackson and Lady Builders' D'Shonda Hunt are two of the most effective rebounders in the KCAC. Jackson is second in the league with 9.9 rebounds, with Hunt ranking fifth at 8.1 rebounds per game.

She's always defensive: Taylor Jackson continues to be a major deterrent for the Falcons along the interior. Jackson has won five KCAC Defensive Player of the Week awards this season and eight for her career. The Houston, Texas native is second in the KCAC in rebounding (9.9 rpg) and has blocked an NAIA-leading 3.3 shots per game. With her eight swats at Bethany back on Jan. 14, Jackson became the Falcons' modern-era career leader in blocks. She now has 186 swats for her career.

60 is a serious number: The Falcons are 11-3 when holding the opposition under 60 points, but are 3-10 when the opponent reaches or surpasses the 60-point mark.

Make or Miss League: The Falcons are 12-3 when leading in field-goal percentage, but are just 1-10 when being outshot by the opposition. Friends won the only occurrence of the season when the field goal percentage was tied Wednesday night (Feb. 15) over York University.

Just take me half the way: When the Falcons carry a lead into the locker room, they've won 11 of 14 games. However, the Falcons are 2-10 in games they trail at intermission. The game has been tied at halftime just once this season, with the Falcons besting York University in overtime Wednesday night (Feb. 15).

Sponsor Alerts: Friends University Athletics is excited to have Home2 Suites by Hilton back as an official athletic sponsor this season! For more on what they can offer, click HERE to visit their official webpage.

Tickets: Fans are able to purchase tickets to all home basketball games by clicking HERE.

Falcons by the Numbers:

Overall record: 14-13

KCAC: 10-11

Home: 10-3

Road: 3-9

Neutral: 1-1

When scoring:                                           

Under 50 points: 1-7

50-59 points: 1-3

60-69 points: 6-3

70-79 points: 3-0

80-89 points: 3-0

90+ points:  0-0

When allowing:

Under 50 points: 4-1

50-59 points: 7-2

60-69 points: 2-5

70-79 points: 1-4

80-89 points: 0-1

90+ points: 0-0

When leading at halftime: 11-3

When trailing at halftime: 2-10

When tied at halftime: 1-0

When committing fewer turnovers: 7-1

When committing more turnovers: 7-12

When turnovers are even: 0-0

When leading in field-goal percentage: 12-3

When trailing in field-goal percentage: 1-10

When field-goal percentage is even: 1-0

When leading in three-point percentage: 9-6

When trailing in three-point percentage: 5-7

When leading in rebounding: 9-8

When trailing in rebounding: 4-5

When rebounding is even: 1-0

When leading in assists: 7-1

When trailing in assists: 7-12

When assists are even: 0-0

In OT: 3-0

The Coaches:

Dean Jaderston is in his fourth season at the helm of the Friends University women's basketball program.

The program broke out under Jaderston last season, coming in fourth place in the KCAC for their best conference finish since winning the league in the 2017-18 season. The Falcons went 22-10 overall last year, marking the Falcons' first 20-win season since going 24-9 in 2017-18.

Jaderston coached a trio of All-KCAC performers last season, highlighted by KCAC Freshman of the Year Taylor Jackson.

Jaderston brings a wealth of experience to Friends University, with over 30 years of coaching high school and college basketball (12 years high school, 19 years of college). A two-time KCAC Coach of the Year, Jaderston coached six NAIA All-America performers during his tenure at Sterling College and won two KCAC championships and one KCAC tournament championship.  Off the hardwood, Jaderston also made a significant impact, overseeing a team GPA of at least 3.0 for 11 of the past 13 years. He also led three basketball mission trips to Panama.

Prior to taking over at Sterling, Jaderston served in the dual role of men's basketball head coach and assistant athletic director at Trinity International University in Deerfield, IL for five seasons.

He also spent eight seasons as both the head girls' basketball and head girls' and boys' tennis coach at Rosemount High School in Rosemount, MN, and 4 years as the head boys' basketball coach at Eastview High School.

Before venturing into the coaching profession, Jaderston was a successful college basketball player at Crown College in St. Bonifacius, Minn.  He was a four-time all-conference selection while helping the team advance to four national tournaments. He also earned All-America and Academic All-America honors at Crown College.

He also competed in tennis for three years at Crown and was a two-time conference singles and three-time conference doubles champion.

Jaderston and his wife Julie have been married for 33 years and are active in youth and camping ministries. They currently serve as executive directors of a premier summer Christian family conference called Northern Pines of Minnesota.

He earned his Bachelor of Arts in History/Secondary Education from Crown College in 1989 and then completed a Master of Arts in Adlerian Counseling and Psychotherapy from Adler Graduate School in 1998.

Whitney Corley is in her eighth season as head coach of the Southwestern College women's basketball program. She served as the team's interim head coach for the first half of the 2015-16 before being named the Lady Builders' permanent head coach in January of 2016.

Corley spent the 2014-15 season as an assistant coach for Southwestern following a six-year stint as an assistant coach at Garden City Community College.  At Garden City CC, Corley's primary role was perimeter player skill development, as well as general program development including recruiting, game planning, student-athlete academics, and film exchange. Corley also coordinated the highly successful GCCC summer basketball camps.

Up Next: The Falcons will compete in the KCAC postseason tournament quarterfinal round next week. If the conference standings remain the same, the Falcons would be the seventh seed and play at second-seeded Bethany College in Lindsborg, Kan. The official bracket with game times will be official following the conclusion of Saturday night's regular season finale games.