@UNCBearsWBB Starts Big Sky Conference Play at Eastern Washington

GREELEY, Colo. -- A New Year means a new season for Northern Colorado women's basketball. The team starts Big Sky Conference play on Thursday when they head to Eastern Washington, tip-off is scheduled for 4:00 p.m. mountain time.

For all the information on the game visit GameDay Central.

Game Notes: Northern Colordo | Eastern Washington | Big Sky

The Match Up
Northern Colorado is looking to get off to a good start in Big Sky play and end a three game losing streak. The Bears will have been off for nine days when the ball tips-off on New Year's Eve. Kianna Williams is coming off her best game of her career when she scored 21 points while grabbing four rebounds and three steals.

Eastern Washington went 6-6 in its non-conference play. Coming into Thursday's game, the Eagles are on a two game losing streak. In their most recent game EWU fell to Boise State 84-79.

Scouting the Eagles
Eastern Washington has found steady leadership under head coach Wendy Schuller who is in her 15th year at the helm in Cheney.

Schuller's 2015-16 version of the Eagles is led by the Hodgins twins of Hayley and Delaney. Hayley the eldest of the twins is leading both the team and the Big Sky in scoring, averaging 20.2 points per game.

Delaney is EWU's second leading scorer with 14.5 ppg.

Ashli Payne is the Eagles leading rebounder grabbing 7.1 boards a game, while also putting up 11.0 points a game.

During the non-conference season Eastern Washington was a streaky team going on both a three game winning streak and losing streak.

Coming into the season the EWU has a mixed bag of expectations. In the Big Sky preseason polls, the coaches picked them to finish ninth, while the media picked them sixth, but they did receive two first place votes.

Last Time Against Eastern Washington
UNC and EWU played in a back and forth affair the last time they played. The game featured three ties and 10 lead changes. The Bears would end up holding serve on their home court winning the game 64-56.

The duo of D'shara Strange and Stephanie Lee combined for 42 points to lead the way for Northern Colorado. Meanwhile Savannah Scott earned her first career start as well.

Three Eagles finished the game in double figures scoring, led by Delaney Hodgins' 13 points.

Last Time Out
• Northern Colorado closed out its non-conference season on December 22 when the Bears traveled to Arizona to take on Grand Canyon University. GCU would defeat UNC 69-59. The Bears were carried by Kianna Williams 21 point performance, a career high for her.

Against the Big Sky
• UNC is 94-116 all-time against Big Sky opponents. Since joining the conference in the 2006-07 season, the Bears are 84-80 all-time. Last season the Bears went 12-6 in the conference to finish third.

On This Date
• UNC has rang in the New Year with a game five pervious times. All five of those games have come at home, most recently in 2011 when they defeated Northern Arizona 77-71. Overall the team is 3-2 on the date.

Month of December
• Northern Colorado holds a record just above .500 in the month of December going 120-116. The best the team ever did in the month was a 6-0 record during the 1994-95 season. Under Ethridge, UNC is 3-7.

Swaggy Z Heating Up
• Kourtney "Swaggy Z" Zadina has been heating up as the temperatures outside continue to drop. Zadina has scored in double figures over the past four of the past five games, averaging 13.6 ppg. She has been shooting at a clip of 44.6 percent from the field and 37.5 percent from downtown.

70 is the Mark
• Coach Ethridge always preaches to her team that if they score 70 points they are in a good position to win. That has held true this season with UNC scoring at least 70 points in four of its five wins. The Denver game the team scored 60 points, but still got the win.

Shooting Woes
• UNC has hit a bit of a cold spell recently struggling to see the ball go through the basket. Against CSU they had a 10:50 field goal drought and over the past three games shot just 37.7 percent from the field.

From Downtown
• The Bears have been feeling it from behind the arc this season averaging 9.5 made threes a game. That ranks for seventh best in the nation, but only third best in the Big Sky. Both Idaho (6th) and Sacramento State (1st) are ahead of UNC.

Stuck Like Glue
• After the game against South Dakota State, Kamie Ethridge called Savannah Scott, "the glue that keeps the team together." Scott has had a strong start to her sophomore season. She has stuffed the stat sheet with her play averaging 9.7 points, 4.2 rebounds, 2.0 assists and 1.5 steals a game. Against CSU she proved to be a stat sheet stuffer once again with 10 points, eight rebounds, two assists and a steal.

Valuing the Ball
• Once again this year UNC is valuing the rock, and forcing teams into turnovers. They rank 12th in the country and first in the Big Sky with a 1.40 assist-turnover ratio. A key component to that ratio is Katie Longwell who ranks 48th in the nation with a 2.21 ratio herself.

Youth is Served
• With the graduation of four key seniors from last year, youth will definitely be a big part of the team this season. So far, 51.1 percent of the team's scoring is coming from underclassmen and 42.7 percent of the rebounds.

RPI Report
• UNC is ranked 179 as of 12/28, sixth best in the Big Sky. Idaho State is the highest at 44.

What's on Deck?
• Northern Colorado will close out its first conference weekend with a trip to Moscow, Idaho to take on the Vandals. Tip-off for Saturday's game is set for 3:00 p.m. mountain time.

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Stephanie Lee

Katie Longwell

Savannah Scott

D'shara Strange

Kianna Williams

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