ETSU women’s basketball opens against George Washington on Friday 

LAS VEGAS, Nev. (Nov. 24, 2022) – Thanksgiving weekend is upon us, as eight well-respected women’s basketball programs look to put on a show at the UNLV Thanksgiving MTE hosted in Las Vegas on Nov. 25-27.

ETSU will face George Washington in the first round of the tournament, which takes place Friday, Nov. 25 at 4:30 p.m. — 1:30 local time — inside the Thomas & Mack Center on UNLV’s campus.

Depending on the result, the Bucs will either face UAlbany or UNLV on Saturday. The winner’s bracket takes place in the Thomas & Mack Center at 3 p.m., while the consolation bracket will go down in Cox Pavilion at 2 p.m. The final four games will take place throughout the day Sunday inside Cox Pavilion.

The other side of the bracket includes Louisiana Tech, Stetson, UC San Diego and Illinois State. All eight teams in the tournament are guaranteed three games — one each day. Opponents will be determined after each day based on results.

All tournament matchups will have live stats. No video or audio streams will be provided.

For more information on the tournament, click here.

MATCHUP

Friday, Nov. 25 – ETSU vs. George Washington – 4:30 p.m. / Live Stats / Tickets

ABOUT THE BUCS

• ETSU rides a four-game win streak into the Thanksgiving MTE following a win this past Sunday over Morehead State, 54-35, inside Brooks Gym. 

• The 35 points by Morehead State was the lowest point total by an ETSU opponent since New Year’s Eve on Dec. 31, 2019 against Converse College. 

• In the MSU game, the Bucs had just six fouls total. No Buccaneer player had more than one foul in the contest. Both teams took only one trip to the free throw line.

• The Bucs are off to their first 4-1 start since the 2017-18 season. In both of those seasons, ETSU won four game against NCAA Division I opponents and had just one loss to a nationally-ranked SEC opponent.

• ETSU can make even more history in this week’s tournament. A win over George Washington would mark the first five-game non-conference win streak since the 1994-95 season, where ETSU started with a 5-0 overall record and finished with a 21-9 record.

• Furthermore, if ETSU wins the first two games of the tournament and advances to the championship game, that will mark the first six-game win streak since the 1980-81 campaign. That season included an eight-game non-conference streak, as the Bucs finished with a 20-10 record.

• Graduate guard Jiselle Thomas (Norwalk, Ohio) leads the Bucs with 18.0 points per game. She scored her 1,000th career point in the season opener against No. 1 South Carolina and ranks among the top five scorers in the SoCon this season.

• Transitioning from guard to post, graduate Jayla Ruffus-Milner (North Hills, Calif.) leads the team with 7.6 rebounds per game and ranks second in the SoCon. She and true freshman Journee McDaniel (New Bern, N.C.) are both in the top-five for conference rebounding with McDaniel at an even 7.0 RPG.

• McDaniel had 13 rebounds and eight points in the Morehead State win, setting two early career-high marks in just her fifth collegiate contest.

• Sophomore Kendall Folley (Lebanon, Ohio) has started at the point the last three games. Folley is third on the team in scoring at 6.8 PPG while adding 3.0 RPG from her guard position.

• Folley, Thomas, Ruffus-Milner, McDaniel and sophomore Courtney Moore (Gainesville, Fla.) have all started the last four games.

• Sophomore transfer Neveah Brown (Charlotte, N.C.) has been a key player off the bench, scoring her NCAA career-high of 15 points in the win over Morehead State. Despite coming off the bench Sunday, she also lead the team with 33 minutes played.

• The Blue and Gold are led by first year Coach Brenda Mock Brown, who took over in August and has guided the Bucs to a 4-1 record through five games.

• Prior to ETSU, Coach Mock spent eight seasons at UNC Asheville from 2012-20. Mock took the Bulldogs from a two-win team her first season into a back-to-back conference championship winner by her fourth and fifth seasons. She has already doubled that UNCA first season win total at ETSU with Sunday’s win. 

• This season, ETSU will seek its first winning campaign and postseason appearance since 2018, where the team finished 20-13 overall, 11-3 in the SoCon and with an appearance in the Women’s National Invitational Tournament (WNIT). ETSU has made three NCAA tournament appearances all-time (2008, 2009, 2010) and four WNIT appearances (1995, 2006, 2014, 2018).

ABOUT THE COLONIALS

• George Washington enters the tournament with a 3-2 record. The Colonials are coming off a 70-64 home loss against opposite-coast opponent Cal State Fullerton.

• Prior to the Fullerton loss, GW had won three-straight games with victories over Maryland Eastern Shore, Howard and American. All three games took place in Washington, D.C.

• Second year head coach Caroline McCombs leads the squad and is in her ninth overall season of head coaching following seven successful years at Stony Brook. She has 146 career wins with 16 of those coming at GW.

• The Buff and Blue are averaging 67.6 points per contest while edging opponents with 65.8 points allowed. GW is shooting just over 40 percent from the floor this season.

• The team is led by graduate student Mia Lakstigala with 14.6 PPG. She has scored in double-figures in all five games this season, including a season-high 18 against Cal State Fullerton the last time out.

• Freshman Nya Robertson is also making an impact as a rookie, averaging 11.0 PPG. That number is sparked by a 27-point showing in the win over Howard and a pair of 10-point games against UMES and CSF.

SERIES HISTORY AGAINST THE FIELD

• Of the seven other teams in the field, ETSU has only faced one of them in its history — Stetson. The former Atlantic Sun rivals have played 20 times, with ETSU owning a 13-7 advantage. The last meeting came back in 2014.

• With ETSU and Stetson not guaranteed to play, the Bucs could potentially add three new opponents to its all-time series list.

• There are eight conferences represented at the tournament: The Mountain West, American East, SoCon, Atlantic-10, Conference USA, A-SUN, Big West and Missouri Valley conferences.

• ETSU has faced two of those conferences already this season, defeating St. Bonaventure of the A-10 and Jacksonville State of the A-SUN. JSU is also a future member of C-USA, who is represented by Louisiana Tech in Vegas this weekend.

For more information on Buccaneer women’s hoops, visit ETSUBucs.com and click on the women’s basketball tab.