KINGSVILLE, Texas – The Texas A&M-Kingsville women's basketball team opens the 2015-16 season in Stephenville, Texas for the TexAnn Tip-Off Classic. The Javelinas will face Texas A&M International on Friday and Concordia (Calif.) on Saturday with both games tipping off at noon.
In the all-time series, the Blue and Gold is 8-7 against the Dustdevils but lost both meetings last season. This will be the first time that TAMUK and the Eagles will have played each other.
Four players are back for TAMUK from last year.
Kyra Bauer played a team-high 29.6 minutes per contest and is the top returning rebounder at 4.3 per game. She also scored 5.2 ppg and made 75.0 percent of her free throws.
Ashley Viera dished out a team best 54 assists for an average of 2.2 per game. The Corpus Christi, Texas native also added 5.6 ppg and 2.2 rpg.
Both sophomores
Kaila Chizer and
Ope Ibrahim saw action exclusively off the bench. Ibrahim finished with a team-high 15 blocks and added 4.2 rpg. Chizer scored 13 points and grabbed 17 rebounds in 13 contests.
Of the 10 newcomers to the roster, seven of them are transfers with two coming from four-year colleges.
TaSheena Moore arrives from Northwestern State, a Division I program in Natchitoches, Louisiana.
Lily Hospers played the past two years at Edinboro University in Pennsylvania and helped lead the team to the NCAA Division II Elite Eight as a freshman.
TAMIU returns three players from last year's 13-13 squad. Jessica Preito started every game and led the team in minutes played (954), points per game (17.4), assists (103) and steals (55). Keiona Mathew contributed 13.2 ppg and 5.2 rpg in 31.8 minutes per contest. Also back is Chelsea Salom, who averaged 2.0 ppg in 12.1 mpg.
CUI is a member of the PacWest Conference. The school is in its first year of making the move from NAIA to NCAA Division II.
The Eagles bring back six players from the 2014-15 season. Leading the way is Brittany Stafford at 10.8 ppg and 6.3 rpg. Zoe Goss contributed 4.0 ppg and 2.3 rpg while the other four hoopsters all saw limited action on the court.
Live stats will be available for both games with links on the women's basketball schedule page.
For full coverage of Javelina women's basketball, please follow @TAMUKWBB on Twitter and @JavelinaAthletics on Instagram, and like our Facebook page (Javelina Nation).
