BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- The Western Michigan University women's basketball team returns to the road this week at Indiana.

LAST TIME OUT
The shorthanded Western Michigan women's basketball team pushed Tuesday night's game to overtime but weren't able to secure the win in an 82-70 loss to the Roosevelt Lakers. In the first ever meeting between the Broncos and Roosevelt, WMU didn't overcome a short bench to the Division II squad from Chicago. The Brown and Gold led for over half of the game but lost steam in the final 15 minutes on the floor. Junior guard Nile Mugiera Orbe was Western Michigan's leading scorer at 17 points on three treys while senior forward Ariana Wilkes led the team on defense with a career-high 15 rebounds.

TOUGH SCHEDULE
The first NET rankings of the season were released on Monday morning and WMU came in at 242 after five games this season. The Brown and Gold improved on their NET Ranking from the end of the 2024-25 season by over 10 spots as they ended last season at a 259 NET.

But most notably, Western Michigan has one of the toughest schedules in the country. The Broncos are in the top 15% when it comes to difficult opponents as their strength of schedule is ranked 48th among 359 Division I teams. WMU has two quadrant one games and three quadrant two games boosting its strength of schedule into the Top 50. 

SETTING PERSONAL BESTS
Senior forward Ariana Wilkes set both a new career-high and something not done by a Bronco in almost three years. Wilkes grabbed 15 boards in Western Michigan's most recent contest against Roosevelt, passing her previous career-high by three. The Brown and Gold haven't had a 15+ rebound performance since January of 2023 when Taylor Williams had 16 against Buffalo, also on the Broncos home court. Williams was a star rebounder for WMU during her career and currently holds the program record for most rebounds in a game after a 21 board performance against Akron in 2021. 

Wilkes isn't the only member of the Brown and Gold to have reset a personal record this year. Against Roosevelt sophomore forward D'Myjah Bolds also set a new career high, but hers was in scoring with 15 points on the Lakers defense. Two other Broncos have set new scoring highs in 2025-26 as redshirt senior forward De'Ahna Richardson scored 22 points at Milwaukee and sophomore guard Kailey Starks had 21 points in the same game. 

SERIES HISTORY
Wednesday night will be the 14th meeting between WMU and Indiana. The Hoosiers hold the series advantage at 9-4 dating back to 1973. The Broncos had a four game win streak against IU from 1976 to 1980 for their victories in the series. The past three meetings between the two have all been on Indiana's home court at Assembly Hall. 

LAST TIME WE MET
The Western Michigan women's basketball team battled incredibly hard on the road against No. 10 Indiana, but fell short by a final score of 67-57 on Dec. 19, 2021. The loss to the Hoosiers was first in over a month for the Broncos who had last lost on Nov. 18 at USC. 

SCOUTING THE HOOSIERS
While last time the two teams met Indiana was nationally ranked, this time the Hoosiers are not in the national polls. Despite not being ranked, IU is still a tough opponent for WMU as Indiana has a NET ranking of 47 and an overall record of 7-1. The Hoosiers were one of only 46 teams that hadn't lost a game heading into the Thanksgiving weekend. But IU lost its first game of the year on Sunday to #10 Iowa State at the Coconut Hoops Tournament 106-95. Otherwise Indiana has picked up wins over Gonzaga, FGCU, Butler, Florida State, Marshall, UIC, and Lipscomb.

The Hoosiers are led by the nations fourth best scorer, senior guard Shay Ciezki who averages a whopping 24.2 points a game. Ciezki also shares the ball well, assisting on 22 buckets to be tied for second on the team. IU has two other players averaging double figures in a game in redshirt sophomore guard Lenée Beaumont and sophomore forward Zania Socka-Nguemen. Beaumont averages 15.1 points while Socka-Nguemen averages 13.0 points and is the Hoosiers leading rebounder at 9.0 boards a game.