By Aimable Rutayisire, Sports Editor
Newman’s women’s basketball team lost an exhibition game against the Division 1 Wichita State Shockers 96-49 at Charles Koch Arena on Wednesday night. But Jets head coach Amy Briggs said the score didn’t tell the whole story.
“These are Division 1 athletes, so they get into you. They’re physical,” she said after the game. “I think it was good for us to see. I feel like we didn’t play scared. We were in attack mode.”
The Jets kept up for the first few minutes of the game and even led at one point. But the quicker Wichita State team fought back. The Shockers went on a 17-0 run just before halftime and went into the locker room leading 53-26.
During the first two possessions of the game, senior Valeriya Lioukina scored back-to-back baskets and later ended the game with six points. Junior Jolene Ramiro sank a trio of three pointers during the game, finishing as the Jets’ leading scorer with 11 points. Junior Alexis Martin scored 10 points.
For Wichita State, graduate student Abby Cater led the way with 18 points, and senior Maimouna Sissoko added 13 points.
Koch Arena was only about a quarter full for the game, and it seemed like more Jets fans showed up than Shocker fans. Newman Athletics brought students who signed up for spots to the game in a van. Several members of the men’s basketball team were in attendance, too.
The crowd got louder and louder as the Shockers lead grew, but Newman supporters got quieter.
The Jets finished the game playing hard defensively and got 11 steals. Newman struggled with the pace of the game, causing the team to record 20 turnovers to their 7 assists.
The Jets started Ramiro, Lioukina, senior Paige Craft, senior Monica Redondo, junior Amaya Perez and. Junior Jaeden McMillin, who led the Jets in scoring and rebounds last year, was at the game but didn’t suit up. Neither did sophomore Nikola Boris.
Briggs said after the game that the two benched players were facing “health stuff.”
The last time Newman’s women’s basketball played a Division 1 team was in 2022, when the Jets took on Kansas State University and lost 47-104.
The Jets will open their regular season on Nov. 14 against Southern Arkansas in Fort Smith.
The men’s basketball team will play in an exhibition game on Friday against Kansas State in Manhattan.
PHOTO: Anna Corbett-Neal, Co-Editor-In-Chief
