Purdue Women’s Basketball Moves on to WNIT Second Round
The Boilermakers play at Ball State on Sunday
GAMEDAY INFORMATION
WNIT
Purdue (19-13) at Ball State (25-6)
Sunday, March 18, 2018 / 2 p.m. ET
Worthen Arena (11,500) / Muncie, Ind.
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – The Purdue women’s basketball team continues postseason play Sunday, heading to Ball State University for a second-round WNIT contest at 2 p.m. ET in Worthen Arena. Sunday marks the second meeting of the season between the Boilermakers and Cardinals as Purdue aims to avenge a 66-60 loss at Mackey Arena on Dec. 4.
LAST TIME OUT
- Purdue advanced in the first round of the WNIT with a 48-46 victory at IUPUI
- Freshman Karissa McLaughlin hit the game-winner with 5.9 seconds left after the Boilermakers trailed by as many as 11 in the second half
- After scoring only 19 first-half points, the Boilermakers scored 20 in the third quarter and went on a 14-4 run holding the Jaguars for more than 10 minutes with only one field goal
- Senior Andreona Keys led the Boilermakers in scoring with 14 points, including nine in the second half, and hit a pair of triples; her first game with multiple 3’s since Jan. 13 at Iowa
- McLaughlin scored 13, her 18th game with double figures this season and 10th in the last 11 games
- Sophomore Ae’Rianna Harris played only 23 minutes due to foul trouble, her fewest since Dec. 8 vs. Valparaiso
- Harris posted nine rebounds and five blocks despite the short time on the floor
- Sophomore Dominique Oden saw her three-game 20-point scoring streak end, but was just shy of a double-double with nine points and eight rebounds
- Freshman Tamara Farquhar stuffed the stat sheet with six points, seven rebounds, three blocks and two steals
HEAD COACH SHARON VERSYP
- Versyp is in her 12th season on the Boilermaker sidelines, Versyp now has the longest tenure had of any coach in program history
- She is the winningest coach in program history, owning 256 victories at Purdue
- Versyp is tied with Lin Dunn for the Boilermakers’ career Big Ten Conference wins mark at 120
- Versyp’s 129 career Big Ten victories are the eighth-most of any coach in conference history and third-most of active coaches
- Purdue’s win at No. 10 Maryland marked the 30th top-25 victory for Versyp as the Boilermakers’ head coach
- Her 22 career Big Ten Tournament victories are an event record, breaking the previous mark (shared by Jim Foster and Rene Portland) with Purdue’s 2017 quarterfinal win over Indiana
- She’s led the Boilermakers to the Big Ten Tournament championship game six times in 12 seasons (four titles)
#BOILERNOTES
- The Boilermakers are making their third-ever appearance in the WNIT, their first since 2010, holding a 4-2 all-time record
- Purdue boasts a mark of 13-2 on the season when scoring at least 70 points, including a 5-1 mark in Big Ten play
- The Boilermakers are 12-2 on the year when outscoring their opponents in the paint, but have not done so in their last five games, last besting their opponent inside at Maryland (Feb. 15)
- Purdue is 15-0 this season when leading for at least 20 minutes of play, and have not relinquished a third-quarter lead, sitting 16-0 when leading after 30 minutes of action
- The Boilermakers have outshot their opponents at the free throw line in 21 of 32 games this season, winning 16 times when making more free throws than their opponents
- With only one senior on the roster, 79.5 percent of Purdue’s scoring has come from underclassmen this season, 76 percent from sophomores and freshmen
- A freshman or sophomore has led the Boilermakers in scoring in 23-of-32 games this season, including 11 of the last 13 contests
- The Boilermakers are on pace to smash their single season record for fouls per game, averaging 13.4 per contest
- Last time out, Keys moved to 21st on Purdue’s all-time scoring list, passing Erika Valek with 1,220 career points
- McLaughlin is now the fourth player in Purdue history to hit at least 70 3’s in a season, one shy of Beth Jones’ 2002-03 mark of 71
- McLaughlin has now played 300 consecutive minutes for the Boilermakers, last going to the bench in the closing minutes of the first half vs. Minnesota on Feb. 8
- Harris needs two blocks to hit 100 for the season and enters Sunday 10 rejections shy of Lindsay Wisdom-Hylton’s single-season Purdue record of 108, set in 2006-07
OPPONENT NOTES
- The Cardinals enter the second round of the WNIT at 25-6 overall after holding off Middle Tennessee State at Worthen Arena on Thursday 69-60
- Ball State finished third in the Mid-American Conference this season, going 13-5
- The Cardinals opened the season with a program record 11 straight victories this season
- Ball State ranks 16th in the NCAA with 80.7 points per game, and is 11th with 18.4 assists per contest
- Ball State also ranks eighth in the nation in free throw attempts, getting to the line 22.4 times per game
- Senior Moriah Monaco is 1-of-5 players averaging double-figure scoring for the Cardinals, leading the team with 16.7 points and 6.2 rebounds per game
- Junior Carmen Grande is second in the NCAA with 9.1 assists per game
- Purdue is 19-6 all-time against Ball State, despite a 66-60 loss to the Cardinals at Mackey Arena this season
- The Ball State win on Dec. 4 snapped a 16-game win streak against the Cardinals, which dated to 1981
- Purdue is 7-2 all-time in Muncie, including a 58-42 win on the Cardinals’ home turf in 2016
- Oden had 15 in last season’s win at Ball State, while Keys eyed a triple-double with 11 points, nine rebounds and six assists