BROOKLYN, N.Y. --- The LIU Brooklyn women's basketball team begins the 2017-18 campaign with the first of six non-conference road contests against Yale of the Ivy League.
QUICK HITS
- A victory in tonight's contest would be LIU's first in its first road game of the year since 2012 when the Blackbirds defeated Columbia, 53-42.
- Third-year head coach Stephanie Del Preore will have a mixture of former role players, transfers, and newcomers at her disposal as the team works to improve on the program's 6-23 mark from 2016-17.
- The team's top returner from 2016-17 is redshirt junior guard Drew Winter, who averaged 3.7 points per game and a team-leading 2.0 assists per game last year.
- Junior guard Paris Jones, who sat out last season due to injury, will be making her return to the court this season. During a shortened 2015-16 campaign, Jones put up averages of 9.4 points, 1.1 rebounds and 1.5 assists per game.
- Among Del Preore's six newcomers, three come to Brooklyn with high quality experience. Graduate student Denisha Petty-Evans enters the season as the Blackbird with the most collegiate game experience (88 games), having played a year at George Mason and two at Siena. Junior Destoni Willock comes to the borough after two years in junior college, including a 2016-17 season at Odessa College in Texas that ended in the NJCAA National Quarterfinals and produced a 29-2 record. Freshman Ella Vaatanen has played in top-flight international competitions for Europe and her native Finland.
- Yale ended last season with a 15-12 record and a 6-8 mark in Ivy League action. Four of the Bulldogs' six players who averaged 20 or more minutes per game last year return for 2017-18.
- LIU will be looking for its first win in the all-time series against Yale in the teams' third meeting. The Bulldogs defeated the Blackbirds last in Brooklyn last December, 75-44.
NEXT UP
LIU will host Saint Peter's on Tuesday, November 14 at 7 p.m. in the Blackbirds' home opener at the Steinberg Wellness Center.