MACOMB, Ill. - Western Illinois women's basketball continues its second round of Summit League play on Thursday (Feb. 13), heading to North Dakota State in an effort to avenge an 83-77 loss in Macomb on Jan. 18.

The Leathernecks (12-11, 4-4 Summit) are also looking to move above .500 in Summit League action, while the Bison (6-18, 2-7 Summit) hope to snap a two-game skid.

Western Illinois will then head to Brookings, S.D. on Saturday to take on South Dakota State, tied for first in the league, Saturday at 4 p.m.

LAST TIME OUT: Western Illinois women's basketball utilized an 18-0 run to overcome a 12-point halftime deficit en route to a 71-65 victory over Omaha inside Western Hall last Thursday night (Feb. 6)... After a sloppy 19 minutes to open the game in which Western committed 14 turnovers and shot just 33 percent, the Leathernecks scored four straight points to end the first half and opened up the second half with 14 consecutive points to take their first lead of the game... Tori Niemann scored nine of WIU's 18 points during that spurt as she finished with 14 points on 6-of-7 shooting, 2-of-2 from long range, and also grabbed six rebounds... Ashley Luke added 17 points, nine boards and four assists, while Michelle Maher totaled 17 points, five assists and three steals... Liz Skotowski also scored in double figures, hitting a trio of 3-pointers as she finished with 11 points and three rebounds... Maher (7-of-8), Skotowski (2-of-2) and Luke (2-of-2) combined to go 11-of-12 from the charity stripe in the final five minutes... After shooting 33.3 percent in the first 19+ minutes, WIU went 53.3 percent the remainder of the way, finishing 45.1 percent for the game (23-of-51).

SCOUTING THE BISON: North Dakota State enters the game with a 6-18 overall record, 2-7 in Summit League play... The Bison are 3-7 at home... Brooke LeMar leads the team in scoring at 15.5 ppg, also leading the Summit League in assists (5.4 apg)... Two other players are also averaging double-figure scoring: Marena Whittle (12.3 ppg) and Holly Johnson (12.0 ppg)... The Bison have dropped four of their past five contests, including two straight games at IUPUI and Denver... North Dakota State's two conference wins were over Western Illinois and Denver... Whittle leads the team in rebounding, pulling down 6.9 rpg... NDSU commits the 21st-fewest turnovers in the nation, averaging 13.0 per contest... LeMar's 5.4 assists per contest rank 38th in the country.

SERIES HISTORY: North Dakota State leads the all-time series, 9-5... Western Illinois has won four of the last seven after the Bison took six straight from 2008-10... Last year, the Leathernecks picked up their first ever win in Fargo, snapping a seven-game skid in road and neutral site contests... The Bison won the first 2013-14 meeting in Macomb earlier this year, 83-77... Ashley Luke led the Leathernecks with 27 points, 13 rebounds, two blocks and two steals... Rebecca Henricson posted one of her best all-around games of the year, notching 16 points, four rebounds, five assists and a career-high six steals... Tori Niemann added 15 points and eight boards... For NDSU, Brooke LeMar led the way with 21 points (10-of-10 from the charity stripe), five rebounds, seven assists and three steals.

THIS DATE IN HISTORY (Feb. 13): Western Illinois is 3-4 on this date all-time... After losing the first four games on this date, the program has won three straight, all in the past 10 years... WIU defeated Southern Utah (76-70 in 2012), Centenary (63-47 in 2010) and Kansas City (55-46 in 2006)... As a sophomore Rebecca Henricson totaled seven points, two assists and a steal in the 2012 win over Southern Utah.

NANCY LIEBERMAN AWARD WATCH LIST: Senior Rebecca Henricson was one of 29 student-athletes in NCAA Division I to be named to the Nancy Lieberman Award watch list... The award recognizes the top point guard in the nation... Henricson is one of just nine mid-major players on the watch list... The list will be cut to 20 later this month.

ACADEMIC ALL-DISTRICT: Sophomore Ashley Luke was named to the Capital One Academic All-District Team (Jan. 30) by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) for her academic and athletic accomplishments this year... She was one of just four sophomores selected in NCAA Division I, and one of just six on the list (44 total) to have a perfect 4.0 GPA... She's now on the ballot for Academic All-America, which will be selected later in February.

PROTECTING THE ROCK: After finishing 15th in the nation with a 2.2 assist-to-turnover ratio last year, Rebecca Henricson has tallied 122 assists while committing just 39 turnovers so far in 2013-14, the fourth-best ratio in the nation... She has committed one turnover or less in nine games this season, never committing more than three turnovers... She has finished with more turnovers than assists just twice... As a team, Western Illinois has finished with more assists than turnovers in 12 of the past 22 contests... The Leathernecks have the best turnover margin and assist-to-turnover ratio in the Summit League.

70 IS THE MAGIC NUMBER: In head coach JD Gravina's tenure, the Leathernecks are 28-9 when scoring at least 70 points, including 11-6 this season... When scoring 69-or-fewer points, Western is 10-37 over the same timespan, 1-5 this season.

SPREAD THE WEALTH: All nine Leathernecks who have seen game action have had a game scoring at least seven points, while eight have had at least one game scoring 16 points or more... Six different Leathernecks have led the team in scoring on a given night... Individual Leathernecks have scored in double figures 79 times already this year.

WHAT DOES MAHER DO?: When Michelle Maher scores at least 13 points this season, the Leathernecks have an 10-3 record... When she puts up 12 points or less, WIU is 2-8... Compared to last year, she has improved her averages in assists (2.4 to 4.4), steals (1.0 to 2.0) and rebounding (3.4 to 4.0).

MILESTONE WATCH: Michelle Maher scored her 600th career point in the win over Omaha (Feb. 6), and she's currently 16 rebounds and six field goals from 200 in each category... Ashley Luke pulled down her 400th career rebound against North Dakota State and scored her 750th point versus Omaha, and is nine assists from 100... Rebecca Henricson became the seventh Leatherneck to reach 300 assists in a career by tallying six at UMKC, and is 21 steals from becoming the sixth Leatherneck to reach the 200 plateau... She is 37 points away from 500 in her career, and pulled down her 300th rebound against Fort Wayne... Tori Niemann surpassed the 300-point mark by scoring 14 against Omaha... Paige Harmon and Liz Skotowski are both 21 points away from 200 in their careers.

SUMMIT'S ACTIVE CAREER LEADERS: As of Feb. 11, Rebecca Henricson is the Summit League's active career leader in assists with 364, 82 ahead of the next-closest (IPFW's Amanda Hyde - 282)... As just a sophomore, Ashley Luke already ranks in the top five in both rebounding (second - 454) and scoring (fourth - 761) in her career.

HIGH ATTENDANCES: For the game against South Dakota State (Jan. 16), 1,085 fans packed Western hall, sixth-most in program history and the second-highest attendance of the past nine years... Two of the top six attendances in program history have occurred under coach JD Gravina in the last two years: Jan. 16 versus SDSU and March 2, 2013 versus Oakland (1,156 fans, second-most all-time)... Against Fort Wayne, 959 fans attended Western's Think Pink night, the 10th-largest crowd in program history... Western Illinois ranks third in the conference for home attendance at conference games, averaging 882 fans inside Western Hall.

IN THE RPI: Western Illinois' official weekly NCAA RPI ratings are below (347 NCAA Division I programs):
    • Preseason: 248
    • Week 1 (Jan. 6): 229
    • Week 2 (Jan. 13): 213
    • Week 3 (Jan. 20): 269
    • Week 4 (Jan. 27): 270
    • Week 5 (Feb. 3): 261
    • Week 6 (Feb. 10): 262

BEATING OTHER MID-MAJORS: In the nonconference portion of its schedule, Western Illinois defeated opponents from several different conferences, including the Atlantic-10, Conference USA, Horizon, Ohio Valley and the WAC... The Leathernecks' win over Saint Louis was the conference's only victory against an A-10 opponent... By defeating UAB, WIU also picked up the league's only win versus a C-USA team; the remainder of the league went 0-4.

NONCONFERENCE SUCCESS: Western Illinois women's basketball posted eight nonconference wins for just the fourth time in program history... The achievement is also the first time Western has reached that mark since the 2005-06 season... That year, WIU went 23-7 and finished 13-3 in conference action.

RECORDS ARE FALLING: Against Culver-Stockton (Jan. 2), Western Illinois shattered a 35-year-old program record for assists (34), dishing out 39... That total also broke the Summit League record of 37 set by Youngstown State in 1998... The mark of 39 assists also ranks tied for sixth in NCAA Division I history, and is the most in more than a decade, bettering UNC's previous 2013-14 season high of 34... After recording 37 assists against St. Francis, Western Illinois holds the two highest single-game assist totals in NCAA Division I in the past 10 years... The total of 37 is tied for 12th-most in NCAA history... By tallying 76 assists over two games, Western Illinois set an unofficial NCAA record for assists in back-to-back games...The Leathernecks have also broken the program single game 3-pointer record twice this season, sinking 16 against William Woods, before bettering that mark again with 17 against St. Francis... Ashley Luke broke the program record for free throws in a season by surpassing Becky Tyo's record of 127 at Denver... Michelle Maher became the first Leatherneck to hit seven or more 3-pointers in two consecutive games, doing so at South Dakota and at Denver.

PRESEASON RECOGNITION: A trio of Leathernecks received preseason recognition... Ashley Luke was projected as 'First Team All-Summit League' through voting of conference coaches, media members, and sports information directors, as well as by College Sports Madness... Luke was the only underclassman to be named to either the First or Second Team by the conference... Additionally, Michelle Maher was tabbed as 'Second Team All-Summit League' and Mallory Boyle was projected to be 'Summit League Freshman of the Year' by College Sports Madness... The conference preseason poll projected Western Illinois to finish sixth in the Summit League in 2013-14... The Leathernecks received 146 points in the poll, just behind Denver (169) and Fort Wayne (179)... South Dakota State received the majority of the first-place votes (27 out of 30) in the poll and led the pack with 319 points.

STRONG RETURNERS: The Leathernecks welcome back eight returners from the 2012-13 roster... Rebecca Henricson is the lone senior and serves as the team captain, also serving as the floor general as the point guard... Ashley Luke is the reigning Summit League 'Newcomer of the Year' and was the lone All-Summit League honoree a year ago... Michelle Maher is back for her sophomore campaign after averaging in double-figure scoring her freshman season... Liz Skotowski, Paige Harmon and Sophie Reichelt all enter their sophomore seasons after shooting 38 percent or better from beyond the arc off the bench their first season... A pair of transfers will see their first action in Purple & Gold after sitting out games last season to meet transfer requirements: Marley Hall, a junior forward, and Tori Niemann, a junior guard.

FRESH FACES: In addition to the eight returners, the Leathernecks also welcome four newcomers in 2013-14... Mallory Boyle was an ESPN 3-star recruit and is expected to make an impact as a true-freshman... Michelle Farrow also enters from the high school ranks after picking up All-Area accolades during her prep career... Western also brings in two more transfers from four-year programs who will have to redshirt the upcoming season to meet transfer requirements: junior Faith Lois, a 5-11 guard who spent her first two seasons at Nevada-Reno, and Ciara Marlow, a 5-7 sophomore guard who averaged double-figure scoring in her rookie season at Division III Aurora University.

HISTORY BEFORE THE TIP: For the first time in program history, the women's basketball team will be playing 15 home games inside Western Hall in 2013-14... Last year was the first time the team had ever played 14 contests in Macomb in one season... Of the eight nonconference games at home, five are Division I programs: Florida Atlantic (Nov. 20), Loyola-Chicago (coached by WNBA legend Sheryl Swoopes - Nov. 23), Saint Louis (Nov. 30), Southeast Missouri State (Dec. 7) and SIU-Edwardsville (Dec. 19)... Playing at home should bode well for the Leathernecks; last year, Western finished 10-4 inside Western Hall compared to 4-12 on the road and at neutral sites.

WESTERN SIGNS ONE FOR 2014-15: On the first day of the 2013-14 early signing period (Nov. 13), Emily Clemens signed a National Letter of Intent to join the Western Illinois women's basketball family for the 2014-15 season... Clemens, a 5-4 point guard from Muscatine H.S. (Iowa), is a two-time All-State honoree... She averaged 12.3 points, 4.7 assists, 3.3 rebounds and 2.8 steals her junior year after totaling 12.5 points, 7.0 assists, 3.7 steals and 2.9 rebounds per contest her sophomore season... She has also shot better than 41 percent from beyond the arc each of her past two seasons.

THREE STRAIGHT: Ashley Luke was named the 2012-13 Summit League 'Newcomer of the Year', marking the third straight season a Leatherneck received the honor... Saule Kontautaite was the 2011-12 recipient, while Sadie Webb earned the recognition in 2010-11... Luke earned the honor by averaging 10.6 points and 7.2 rebounds per game in her redshirt-freshman season... She was also named 'Second Team All-Summit League' and to the 'Summit League All-Newcomer Team'.