[Women's Basketball] Women's Basketball heads to North Newton to take on Bethel on Wednesday
The Kansas Wesleyan women's basketball team plays Bethel at 6 p.m. Wednesday in North Newton. KWU defeated the Threshers 74-63 on Dec. 15 at Mabee Arena as Gabbie Miller (SR/Kiefer, Okla.) scored 16 points, Sydney Mortensen (SR/Wichita, Kan.) 14 and Haleigh Bradford (JR/Schertz, Texas) 13.
LIVE COVERAGE
The game will be available online through the Coyote Sports Network, powered by Stretch Internet, portal.stretchinternet.com/kwu. Live Stats will be available on the Stretch portal and on DakStats at www.dakstats.com/naia. Radio coverage will be on FM 104.9 in the Salina area and around the world at www.ksal.com. Pat Strathman will have the call with pregame starting at 5:45 p.m.
KANSAS WESLEYAN AT A GLANCE
The Coyotes are 20-6 overall, 18-2 in the KCAC, and trail conference leader Tabor (19-2) by half a game. The Bluejays are idle Wednesday and come to Mabee Arena on Saturday. KWU takes a 10-game winning streak into the Bethel contest and is coming off an 81-56 victory over Friends on Saturday at Mabee Arena.
The Coyotes lead the KCAC in 3-point shooting (34.5 percent) and 3-pointers made (209), are second in scoring offense (75.9 points), field goal percentage (41.9), points scored (1,972) and assists (14.0), and are third in scoring margin (11.8 points per game). Defensively, they're seventh in points allowed (64.1), 10th in field goal percentage (39.4) and fifth in 3-point field goal percentage (28.1). KWU's second in the KCAC in rebounding (42.6) and rebounding margin (7.3), and third in turnover margin (2.0). The Coyotes are forcing 20.1 turnovers and committing 18.0 per game.
Kayla Kivinski (SR/Port Richey, Fla.) leads a balanced scoring attack and ranks 10th in the KCAC with a 12.1 average. She's followed by Mortensen (9.9), Courtney Heinen (JR/Axtell, Kan.) (9.2), Bradford (9.0), Amanda Hill (SO/Rossville, Kan.) (8.2), Virja Lewis (SO/Kansas City, Kan.) (7.7) and Miller (7.5). Mortensen's second in 3-point field goal percentage (42.3) and leads the conference with 66 made 3-pointers. Kivinski is the top free throw shooter in the league (88.5 percent) while Miller's second in steals (2.2) and fifth in assists (3.1).
BETHEL AT A GLANCE
The Threshers are 18-7 overall and fourth in the KCAC standings at 13-7. They lost to Ottawa 62-53 Saturday in Ottawa after winning seven of their previous eight games, including a 70-68 victory over Sterling on Jan. 30 in North Newton.
Bethel ranks third in scoring (68.3) and second in defensive scoring (60.4) in the KCAC. The Threshers are fifth in field goal percentage (41.0) and third in defensive field goal percentage (35.7). They lead the KCAC in rebounding margin (11.4), are third in blocks (3.4) and fifth in assists (11.4). Bethel averages 18.6 turnovers and forces 16.8.
Sophomore center Abby Schmidt leads the team in scoring and is fourth in the KCAC in scoring (14.9 points), leads the KCAC in field goal percentage (55.2) and rebounding (10.8) and is second in blocks per game (2.1). She was the KCAC Defensive Player of the Week after totally 17 rebounds and six blocks in two games last week. She had 19 points and eight rebounds in the first game between the two teams. Jade Brown averages 12.4 points (ninth in the KCAC), 7.2 rebounds (eighth in the conference) and had 21 points against KWU the first time. Karlie Schroeder averages 9.2 points and 5.9 rebounds, and Kendall Michalski 9.0 points.