Marshall University Athletics
MAC Champion Broncos to Face Herd Women on Wednesday
1/13/2004 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
MAC Champion Broncos to Face Herd Women on Wednesday
1/13/2004
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. ? Marshall will welcome the defending Mid-American Conference champion Broncos of Western Michigan to the Cam Henderson Center for a Wednesday showdown that features several of the league?s top players. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m.
Marshall is off to its best MAC start ever, 2-1, and its overall record of 10-3 is the school?s finest since the 1990-91 team also began the year at 10-3. Senior Catie Knable (Floyd Knobs, Ind.) could be the conference?s hottest player with 13.0 points and 13.5 rebounds per game in last week?s action, which saw the Thundering Herd down traditional adversaries Kent State and Ohio. The Herd has now won two straight over KSU after an 11-game slide to the Golden Flashes and snapped a four-game losing skid to the Bobcats by blowing out OU 86-63 on their home floor.
Knable, the country's 18th leading rebounder, averages a double-double with 10.5 points and 10.7 rebounds per contest. Her rebounding proficiency has helped guide the Herd to a second place tie with AP No. 1-ranked Duke for the highest rebounding margin in the nation at +13.4.
Western Michigan (7-6, 2-0 MAC) is paced by the MAC?s second-leading scorer in junior Casey Rost. A first team all-MAC selection a year ago, Rost scores at a 20.4 ppg clip, but has exploded for 30 ppg in WMU?s initial two MAC games. In all, Ron Stewart?s club has three players who average double digits in points, including Kelly Koerber (11.1 ppg) and Maria Jilian (10.0 ppg).
Jilian was the 2002-03 MAC Defensive Player of the Year, thanks to her league single-season steals record of 124 last year.
After winning the postseason tournament, Western Michigan fell to the No. 3-seeded Stanford Cardinal in last season?s NCAA Tournament, 82-66.
Both teams are 3-2 in their last five games and stand at No. 1 and 2 in the league in steals per game. WMU leads the MAC with 11.85 steals per game with the Herd in second at 11.69 per game.
Catch all of the live action on Marshall?s student-run radio station, 88.1 WMUL-FM. The broadcast can also be picked up on the internet at www.marshall.edu/wmul.
