Thursday, November 20, 2008

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (Nov. 20, 2008) - When head coach Karen Kemp released her 2008-09 women's basketball schedule in July she knew her Lady Buccaneers would be tested early and often. On Friday night inside Memorial Center ETSU will get its biggest test of the year when the Lady Bucs host No. 12/13 Vanderbilt in their home opener at 7 p.m.

The Lady Bucs dropped a pair of road games to start the campaign - falling at Evansville on Saturday and at Chattanooga Monday night.

ETSU brings a strong scoring trio into Friday's matchup as juniors TaRonda Wiles (Danville, Va.) and Siarre Evans (Griffin, Ga.) and freshman Gwen Washington (Manassas, Va.) are each averaging double figures for the Lady Bucs. Wiles is coming off a career-high 27-point effort at UTC and is averaging 16 points per game, while Washington poured in a career-best 21 at Evansville and is netting 15 per contest. Rounding out the attack is Evans' 14.5 points per game.

Vanderbilt is riding a three-game winning streak into Johnson City after blitzing Eastern Kentucky, 80-38, Wednesday night inside Memorial Gymnasium. The Commodores opened the season with a 34-point win versus Texas A&M Corpus Christi (85-51) and an 18-point win at Western Kentucky on Sunday, 90-72.

The Commodores are led by All-SEC senior Christina Wirth and sophomore forward Hannah Tuomi. Wirth is averaging a team-best 17.0 points per game, while Tuomi is posting 15 a contest. As a team, Vanderbilt is hitting 51.9-percent of its shots and beating its opponents by over 30 points per game (+31.3).

Fans unable to attend Friday's contest can watch the contest online by visiting, https://asun.neulion.com/asc/console.jsp, and live stats will also be available by clicking the link above.

For more information on Lady Buccaneer basketball, visit www.ETSUBucs.com.