Storylines – vs Glenville State College
Saturday's game between UVa-Wise and Glenville State pits teams who are on a roll to start the 2016-17 season. The Pioneers have won four of the season's first five games, including a 114-87 throttling of Concord on Wednesday. Under the direction of first-year Head Coach Kim Stephens, the former Glenville State standout has continued the team philosophy of run-and-gun. The Pioneers are averaging a Mountain East Conference best 96.6 points per game and lead the nation with 16.4 made 3-pointers per game. Junior Paris McLeod has led the way for Stephens' crew, the guard ranks second in the league at 16.8 points per game while ranking third in the conference in assists at five per contest. As a team, the Pioneers have four players averaging double figure scoring. With the lone exception being McLeod, Kristin DesRocher (17), Julie Bishop (17) and Brittany Jackson (16) have all made at least 16 3-pointers. A key to the contest will be "squeezing the orange". Glenville State forces 23.2 turnovers per game, a number that has aided the team to a +5.2 turnover margin.
About UVa-Wise
UVa-Wise is playing in some of its biggest regular season games since transitioning to NCAA Division II. At 3-0 in the MEC,
Kristin Kunzman's team stands in a first place tie with Wheeling Jesuit. The team continues to receive the bulk of its offense from the senior trio of
Kayla Carey,
Makenzie Cluesman and
Taylor Sandidge while having various other players chip in on a nightly basis. In its most recent 59-52 win over West Virginia Wesleyan, Cluesman scored 15 points, grabbed five rebounds and dished out seven assists while Carey (12) and Sandidge (11) combined for 23 points. A pair of newcomers helped push the Cavaliers over the top as freshman
Natalie Boothe drained two 3-pointers and fellow freshman
Cynita Webb scored six points and grabbed seven rebounds. The depth of UVa-Wise could be a big boost Saturday. Thus far, nine different Cavs average double digit minutes with six players tallying at least 15 minutes. The game against the Pioneers comes less than two weeks after playing West Virginia State. Like Glenville State, the Yellow Jackets play a very similar up-temp game. In that contest, UVa-Wise rallied from a double digit second half deficit to claim the home victory. Boothe (9) and Webb (8) were big contributors in the win combining for 17 points while Carey (24) and Cluesman (23) each finished above the 20-point plateau. The game will wrap up the first portion of MEC games with each school playing four league games prior to the holiday break. UVa-Wise will wrap up the 2016 portion of its schedule with four non-conference games, including a pair of games in Puerto Rico. Â
