ROMEOVILLE, Ill. – Lewis University's women's basketball continues its five-game homestand with a pair of contests this week. The Flyers will take on Purdue Northwest at 5 p.m. on Tuesday evening and then will host Parkside at 1 p.m. on Saturday afternoon. Both contests will be held at Neil Carey Arena.
Lewis is still seeking its first win of the season after coming oh so close last week in losses against Ferris State and No. 8 Ashland. The Flyers fell to the Bulldogs by eight points but it was just a one possession game with less than a minute to go before FSU sealed the game at the line. Lewis nearly had an upset win over the Eagles on Saturday but came up a point short missing a layup in the closing seconds that would've put them ahead.
Lewis is shooting the ball well making 41 percent of their attempts including 37 percent from three and are shooting 77 percent at the charity stripe. It has three players averaging double figures in scoring led by
Jenna Badali (Oak Lawn, Ill./Mother McAuley) with 16 points per game while
Grace Hilber (Sun Prairie, Wis./Sun Prairie) is averaging 15.8 points per contest and
Kathryn Schmidt (Hampshire, Ill./Burlington Central) is adding 14.3 points per outing. Schmidt and
Taylor Gugliuzza (New Lenox, Ill./Lincoln-Way West) are the team's leading rebounders at 5.5 and 5.0 rebounds per game. Badali leads the team with 11 steals while Hilber has 10 swipes.
Purdue Northwest enters Tuesday's contest with a record of 2-1 on the season and have won two straight contests. The Pride opened their season with a 61-57 loss against Illinois Springfield at McKendree on Nov. 12 then bounced back the next day to defeat the Bearcats 84-61. PNW won its home opener last Thursday defeating Roosevelt 92-73.
The Pride have six players averaging double figures in scoring and are led by Savaya Brockington with 17.3 points per contest while Anjel Galbraith is averaging 15 points per game and Dash Shaw is contributing with 13 points off the bench. Brockington also leads the team in rebounding with 6.3 per game and Galbraith has dished out a team-best 17 assists.
Tuesday's meeting marks the third one all-time between Lewis and Purdue Northwest with the Flyers having won the first two meetings. Lewis won the last meeting between the two 92-53 on Nov. 20, 2018.
Parkside enters Saturday's contest with a record of 2-2 after dropping two contests last week against Minnesota Duluth last Thursday and to Minnesota State last Saturday.
The Rangers are averaging 68.3 points per outing while conceding 71.3 points per game. Alyssa Nelson leads the team in scoring with 18.5 points per contest while Hannah Plocelman and Maddy Harrison are averaging 17.3 and 12.5 points per game respectively. Plocekelman and Nelson also lead the team in rebounding with 7.0 and 6.8 rebounds per game.
Saturday's contest is the 70th meeting all-time between the former GLVC rivals with Lewis holding a 46-23 advantage in the series which includes a 26-7 record at Neil Carey Arena. Parkside snapped the Flyers 10 game winning streak in the series with an 82-63 win in the last meeting between the two on Dec. 18, 2019 at DeSimone Gymnasium.
