INDIANAPOLIS – With five teams above .500 as Great Midwest Athletic Conference play began last week, the women’s basketball landscape is shaping up to be a competitive race towards March.
The postseason will feature six of the eight G-MAC teams bidding to make the NCAA Championship Midwest Regional with an automatic qualifier or an at-large selection.
Kentucky Wesleyan, Malone and Ursuline, have all emerged as early unbeaten at 2-0 through the first week of the league. Several career records have already been broken and a few more will probably be shattered by the end of the year.
The Panthers (11-1 overall) are close to making history on a current 11-game win streak. One more victory matches the all-time conference record of 12 straight assembled by Ursuline last year.
After a heartbreaker in OT to begin the year, Kentucky Wesleyan hasn’t lost since Nov. 11. That includes a season sweep in regional play against Missouri-St. Louis and another Midwest Region win against Illinois-Springfield.
Senior Brittany Wells currently leads the league in both field goal percentage and three-point percentage; she is also currently second in the league in scoring at 20.5 ppg. She has led KWC in scoring nine of the 12 games this season.
The Panthers passed their first test of the conference schedule by winning at Ohio Valley and Cedarville, both on the road.
Malone (9-4 overall) is making noise as winners of six straight and an exhibition win over Division I Bowling Green sandwiched in there.
The Pioneers are the G-MAC’s top defensive unit and best free-throw shooting team while the trio of Rachel Goddard, Hannah McCue and Baylen Dyrlund, are all putting up strong numbers as double-digit point scorers while facilitating different roles.
The upcoming weekend looms large with road stops at Trevecca Nazarene and red-hot Kentucky Wesleyan ahead.
Ursuline (10-5 overall) is still the reigning champs and with the returning core intact, the Arrows are still a huge threat against Ashland in the Midwest Region, a school that is ranked tops in the country.
Cedarville (7-6, 1-1 G-MAC) and Trevecca Nazarene (4-8, 1-1 G-MAC) both split their conference-opening games. The Yellow Jackets were dealt an early blow when Abby Wolford went down with a season-ending injury before the year got underway. In a similar position with a season-ending setback last year was guard Regina Hochstetler, who has looked better than ever, leading the league in minutes and free-throw percentage.
A trio of West Virginia schools are in search of their first conference win later this week. All-time G-MAC leading scorer Stephanie Wooten is averaging 21.5 ppg this season at Davis & Elkins (8-4, 0-2 G-MAC). Both Ohio Valley (4-8, 0-2 G-MAC) and Alderson Broaddus (4-10, 0-2 G-MAC) have recorded four wins to date this year.
Incoming G-MAC Schools
Findlay (12-3 overall) currently leads the South Division in the GLIAC standings followed by Walsh (11-4 overall), Ohio Dominican (9-5 overall), Hillsdale (2-6 overall) and Lake Erie (1-7 overall). All five schools will join the G-MAC for the 2017-18 academic year.