University of Nebraska-Kearney men’s and women’s basketball teams head into Rice Auditorium to take on the Wayne State College Wildcats in a doubleheader on Wednesday, Nov 20.
The WSC women hold a record of 1-1 heading into this matchup and the men’s team record is 4-0. The UNK women’s team record is 4-1, while for the men’s team record is 0-3. Wildcat women’s head coach Brent Pollari gave Wildcat fans a preview of what to expect for this matchup.
“They beat a really good Northern State team at Northern State already this year,” Pollari said. “We are preparing for them to play fast. They try to push the ball, so we’ve been working on a lot of transition defense. They’re a dribble drive team, so we’ve been working on some dribble drive concepts. That’s probably the biggest part. They have got some people that can shoot the ball pretty well, and some strong post players. They attack the glass offensively.”
Pollari also noted some players to look out for ahead of this matchup to match with Kearney’s players. Kearney lost their previous matchup against Adams State 65-58.
“I think for our post players, we have kind of a dual combo with our fives with Kylah vanDonkersgoed and Brooklyn Kruse,” Pollari said. “Maya Fitzpatrick will be somebody that is good defensively, same with Tate Norblade. Hopefully we get some shooting from Carsyn Boswell and Delaney Clark, and then just people filling in doing the roles, doing their jobs.”
On the men’s side, the Wildcats are coming off a win against Bellevue University 82-65 on Monday Nov. 18. The freshman Matt Noll led the way for WSC with 20 points on a perfect shooting night for him. On the Lopers side, they are coming off a 78-76 loss at home to Dakota State. The Lopers’ leading scorer was senior graduate Allen Taylor with 21 points. Kearney has one attacking point that the Wildcats don’t have, and it is free throws. In the Dakota State game, the Lopers had a team total 86% at the line and in the Bellevue game, the Wildcats were 46% at the charity stripe. The Wildcats make up for it in three-point shooting, where they had a team mark of 50% from deep in the game against Bellevue.
The doubleheader begins at 5:30 p.m. with the women’s contest, followed by the men’s game at approximately 7:30 p.m. Both games will take place at Rice Auditorium on the campus of WSC.