OXFORD, Ohio – The Western Michigan women's basketball team travels to Oxford, Ohio to square off against the Miami Redhawks on Saturday, February 17, at 1:00 PM. The game will be streamed on ESPN+.
Miami enters Saturday's game with a 6-16 record and 3-8 Mid-American Conference record. This season, Jadyn Scott and Amber Tretter lead the Redhawk offense: As a duo, the two have combined for 20.8 points and 11.1 rebounds per game through 22 games this season. Most recently, Miami has won two out of its last three games with a 58-48 road win over Akron on Saturday, February 3, and a 80-63 home win over Georgia State on Saturday, February 10. In the Redhawks' win over Akron, Tretter posted a game-high 18 points and added 10 rebounds. Later against Georgia State, Scott would lead all players with 21 second half points enroute to a career high 27 points after shooting 9-14 from the field.
After starting the season 5-9, the Brown and Gold have bounced back by claiming sole possession of the sixth seed in the MAC. With a victory over Miami, the Broncos can win their sixth game in nine contests and continue to improve their positioning in the MAC standings.
WMU enters its road tilt against the Redhawks with a 10-12 record (5-6 in MAC) after snapping a two game losing streak with a 65-47 road win over Northern Illinois University on Wednesday. In the victory over the Huskies, graduate student Kaitlyn Zarycki led all players with 26 points, four assists, three steals, and one block. With her 26 point outing, Zarycki scored 20+ points for the 10th time this season. Additionally, freshman
Nile Muguira Orbe and redshirt sophomore
De'Ahna Richardson continued their hot play of late by combining for 21 points, 10 rebounds, and two steals as a unit.
Zarycki's game-high 26 points against NIU propelled her to 418 points on the season, which is the 22nd most points scored in a single season for WMU. Her latest outing improved her scoring average to 19 points per game, which ranks tied for 35th in the nation and 2nd in the MAC as of Friday afternoon. Additionally, she is shooting at an excellent 51.6% from the field, 44.2% from three, and 90% from the free throw line this season. With her shooting averages, Zarycki is the only player in the MAC averaging 50/40/90 splits (To qualify, a player must play in 75% of their team's games).
On the defensive half of the court, senior guard Gabi Saxman snatched two steals in the Brown and Gold's win over NIU to improve her career total to 117 steals. Over her last nine games, the senior has seen a massive uptick in steals as she has averaged 2.3 steals per contest. Entering the weekend, Saxman is 19 steals from tying (Michelle Fortier 1990-93) for the 18th most steals in program history (136 steals).
MAC Tournament Outlook
The Broncos enter Saturday's matchup one game behind Bowling Green and two games back of Buffalo for the fifth and sixth seed in the MAC standings. Including Saturday's contest, the women's basketball team has seven conference games remaining until the conclusion of the regular season.
For all things WMU women's basketball, make sure to follow the team on Instagram @wmu_wbb, Twitter @wmu_wbb, and Facebook @westernmichiganwomensbasketball.
