CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – Coming off a regular season championship, the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi women's basketball team will begin its journey to defend its title Wednesday at 7 p.m. when it hosts HCU at the American Bank Center for its 2023-24 conference opener.
The Islanders (7-4) will look to defend their regular season title after winning it in 2022-23 with a 14-4 conference record. It was the second championship in four seasons, and it earned A&M-Corpus Christi an automatic bid to the WNIT for the program's third ever postseason appearance and first since 2009-10 when it went to the Women's Basketball Invitational.
The Islanders are riding a four-game winning streak into the conference slate, posting the best nonconference record among the Southland members. They are coming off its second straight 70+ point game and 30+ victory margin with a 76-45 win over Concordia, where 40 of their points came off turnovers as the Islanders grabbed a season-high 23 steals with graduate
Alecia Westbrook recording her career-high of eight herself.
Westbrook, the reigning SLC Player and Defensive Player of the Year, is leading the conference in rebounding (7.5 rpg) for the third year in a row. Junior
Nabaweeyah McGill also ranks atop the standings with 1.8 blocks per game and second for her offensive rebounding (2.2 orpg).
Junior
Jaeda Whitner comes in at third in the SLC for her three-point shooting (.429) while Westbrook (2.1 spg) and junior
Tymberlin Criswell (1.9 spg) both rank top-five in steals per game.
The Islanders lead the Southland Conference in scoring margin (+11.2), FG% defense (.339), rebounding (40.1 rpg), assist/turnover ratio (0.99), blocked shots (4.73 bpg), assists (15.18 apg), and steals (11.73 spg).
They average 66.3 points per game, with 31.6 coming from off the bench. The team's bench points per game average ranks them 12th in the nation.
A&M-Corpus Christi was picked second in the SLC Preseason Poll with three first-place votes, coming in behind Southeastern (159) with 140 points. Westbrook and senior
Paige Allen were tabbed to Preseason All-Conference teams.
HCU (5-6) was picked for a fifth-place tie with McNeese in the preseason poll after finishing last year with a 6-12 SLC record. Though, the Huskies have N'Denasija Collins leading the league in scoring, averaging 13.8 points per game.
The game can be available to watch live with a subscription to ESPN+. Doug Kesterson will be on the call.
NOTES
- It will be the first conference matchup this year among all Southland basketball squads. The Islanders are 13-9 all-time over the Huskies and 7-3 when playing in Corpus Christi, though, the teams split the series last year with both teams winning on the road.
- The Islanders are 6-2 at home this season, 230-150 all-time at home, and 97-75 in the American Bank Center. They have won at least 10 home games in both of the last two seasons.
- The Islanders are 6-0 this year when they outrebound their opponent and score 60 or more points. They are 7-0 when holding the opposition to under 60 points.
- A&M-Corpus Christi has scored at least 50 points in every game this season. It is the first time since 2018-19 that the Islanders have scored at least 50 points in each of the first eleven games of the season.
- Westbrook is the sixth active player in the NCAA to reach 1,000 career rebounds. Her total (1,004) comes right behind Angel Reese's (LSU) 1,095. She also finds her name in the active career leader list in free throw attempts (8th, 621), free throws made (9th, 465), and double-doubles (13th, 36).
- A&M-Corpus Christi returns four starters who were all in the championship squad's top-five in scoring. This year, eight Islanders are averaging over 5.0 ppg with six posting at least 6.0 points per outing.
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