Women's Basketball | 12/4/2021 9:50:00 AM

RUSTON, La. – The Mississippi Valley State University women's basketball program will look to use its week off to its advantage, playing at Louisiana Tech on Sunday afternoon and for just the second ever meeting all-time between the programs.

What You Need to Know 
 

• Time and Date: Sunday, December 5 (2 p.m.)

 

• Live Stats: https://admin.latechsports.com/sidearmstats/wbball/summary

 

• Video: https://conferenceusa.com/watch/default.aspx?Live=15143&path=conf (CUSA.tv)

 

• Audio: https://www.sportstalk977.com/

 

• Tickets: N/A

 

• Records: Mississippi Valley State (0-5, 0-0 SWAC) | Louisiana Tech (5-2, 0-0 C-USA)

 

• Location: Ruston, Louisiana – Thomas Assembly Center

 

• Series History: Louisiana Tech Leads 1-0

 

• Last Meeting: December 1, 1989 | Opponent Score 95, Mississippi Valley State 51 | Ruston, Louisiana (Thomas Assembly Center)

 

• Winning Streak: Louisiana Tech (W1) | Mississippi Valley State's Last Win: N/A

 
Mississippi Valley State Overview
 
Valley has been excellent at forcing turnovers through five matchups, averaging 20.80 per game to slot in the nation's top-50. They also have the third-best turnover margin in the SWAC (1.60) and the second-highest free throw percentage (71.1%).
 
Ronni Williams has been the most generous player in the Southwestern Athletic Conference, leading the league in assists per game (3.8) while logging the most minutes as well (35.27).
 
The steals leaderboard is a logjam of Delta Devilettes as the trio of Williams, Zakiya Mahoney and defending SWAC Player of the Week Mikayla Etienne all average two takeaways per game to tie for second in the conference.
 
Kerrigan Johnson has emerged as the team's long-range assassin, converting an average of two triples per night (2nd in SWAC) at a 34.5% rate (3rd in SWAC).
 
Etienne and Mahoney have been the go-to scorers for Coach Walker-Johnson, posting 13.6 and 12.2 points per game, respectively.
 
Sarah Moore caps off the top performers for the Green and White, securing seven rebounds a contest, good for sixth in the conference.
 
Scouting The Opponent: Louisiana Tech Lady Techsters
 
LA Tech are projected to be in the middle of the pack among its Conference USA peers as they finished .500 in league play last season and have nine newcomers on this squad voted to come in sixth place.
 
The Techsters have gone 3-2 against Division I competition, beating Nicholls, Boise State and Louisiana-Monroe while suffering setbacks to Ole Miss and Colorado.
 
One of the newcomer bright spots for Louisiana Tech is Tulane transfer Salma Bates, who is second in C-USA with 27 assists, third for assist-to-turnover ratio (1.69), and fifth in steals (17).
 
Keiunna Walker is the points person for Coach Stoehr, averaging 16.7 points a matchup while shooting 40.7% and ranking fourth for steals per contest (2.57) in the league.
 
The big body in the paint is 6-foot-3 forward Anna Larr Robinson. She is third in Conference USA in both rebounds per game (9.0) and blocks per game (1.57).
 
Collectively, the defense has played a physical yet disciplined brand of basketball, coming in the top-25 among all schools for turnover margin (6.29) yet committing just 13.4 fouls per game to slot in the top-20.
 
Follow the Delta Devils and Delta Devilettes on Facebook (Mississippi Valley State Athletics), Twitter (@MVSUDevilSports) and Instagram (@MVSUDevilSports).