Wildcats Back on the Road to face Northeastern Wednesday (12 P.M., NESN)

DURHAM, N.H. - The University of New Hampshire women's basketball team looks for its first win of the season Wednesday in a game at noon at Northeastern University in the Cabot Center.
The game, originally scheduled for 1 P.M., has been moved up an hour from its original time and it will be on NESN.
UNH returns home to play Bryant University on Sunday at 1 p.m. in Lundholm Gymnasium. For tickets, call 603-862-4000 or visit www.unhwildcats.com.

UNH STORYLINES

Ashley Storey posted her second career double vs. Sacred Heart.
Her 22 points matched her career high and 12 rebounds set a career high.
Alli Gribbin had a career-high eight rebounds against Sacred Heart.
Amanda Torres scored a career-high 14 points vs. Brown.
Kari Brekke has eight of UNH's 12 three-point baskets.
UNH has won its last two games at Northeastern with wild finishes.
Coach Maureen Magarity is in her ninth season as Wildcat head coach.
Northeastern brings a 3-0 record into the game.

THE STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE

The young Wildcats – seven of the 13 players on the roster are freshmen - look for their first win of the season at Northeastern.

Junior forward Ashley Storey leads the team in scoring (16.5 points per game) and rebounding (7 per contest). She had 21 points against Brown and followed that with 22 to match her career-high against Sacred Heart on Sunday. Storey is fourth in the league in scoring and third in field goal percentage (26-for-53 for 49.1 percent).

All five UNH starters through the first four games are averaging at least eight points per game with sophomore forward Maggie Ahearn and junior guard Caroline Soucy at 9 points per game, freshman guard Kari Brekke at 8.5 and sophomore guard Amanda Torres at eight per game.

The Wildcats rank second in the league in free throw percentage at 76 percent (38-for-50).

Maureen Magarity, who is in her ninth season as head coach, has led UNH to its best two-year run in the history of the program the last two seasons.

UNH went 19-12 overall and 9-7 in America East least season, following up on 26-6 and 15-1 marks in 2016-17. The Wildcats advanced to the America East semifinals each season. The team's 45 victories over the last two years combined is the best two-year win total in school history.

Storey and senior Alli Gribbin, the lone senior on the team, are the Wildcat captains.

SCOUTING NORTHEASTERN

- Overall record is 3-0.
- The Huskies average 74.3 points a game while their opponents average 61.3.
- Senior guard Jess Genco (16.3 points per game) and senior forward Gabby Giacone (13.3 per game) lead the Huskies in scoring.
- Giacone (7 a game) and Ayanna Dublin (7.3) lead in rebounding.
- The main three-point shooters are Genco, junior Shannon Todd and sophomore Stella Clark with five each.
- The starters are Genco, Giacone, Todd, Katie May and Dublin
- Jess Genco notched 31 points against Dayton and had 11 rebounds for her fourth career double-double
- Last season, the Huskies were 16-15 overall and lost in the first round of the CAA tournament to Delaware.
- Kelly Cole is in her fifth season as Northeastern's head coach.
- Whitney Edwards, a 2007 UNH grad, is in her second year as a Northeastern assistant coach.
- She was a UNH assistant coach for two seasons prior to joining the Huskies.

HOME COOKING

Only two of UNH's eight games in November are at home. In contrast, the Wildcats play four of their five December games in Lundholm Gymnasium.

The second November home game is Sunday at 1 p.m. against Bryant University.

UNH plays home games against the University of New England on Thursday, Dec. 6 at 7 p.m.; against Holy Cross on Sunday, Dec. 9 at 1 p.m.; against Dartmouth on Friday, Dec. 21 at 11 a.m. and against Princeton on Saturday, Dec. 29 at 1 p.m.

The Wildcats open the America East portion of the schedule with a game at Maine on Wednesday, Jan. 2.

They play their first home league game against play Binghamton on Saturday, Jan. 5 at 1 p.m.

Tickets for all home games are available by calling 603-862-4000 or at www.unhwildcats.com.

WILD(Cat) WINS

The Wildcats beat Northeastern, 65-50, last year in Durham.

UNH's last two trips to Northeastern's Cabot Center ended in dramatic and successful fashion.

The Wildcats topped the Huskies, 66-63 in overtime, on the road on Dec. 1, 2016. UNH needed a Brittni Lai three-pointer at the buzzer to get the game to overtime and Carlie Pogue finished with 26 points and 13 rebounds.

On Dec. 22, 2014, Kristen Anderson hit a shot from well beyond the three-point line at the buzzer to complete a comeback from a 20-point deficit and give UNH a 63-62 win at Northeastern. Anderson had made another three-pointer to tie it 60-60 with seven seconds to play. After Northeastern hit a pair of free throws, Anderson struck again for the win.

HOW YOUNG IS YOUNG?

So just how young are these Wildcats?

UNH has one senior on the roster with three juniors, two sophomores and seven freshmen.

The average age of the Wildcats on opening day, Nov. 9, was 19 years, eight months and 12 days.

FOR STARTERS

Juniors Ashley Storey and Caroline Soucy, sophomores Maggie Ahearn and Amanda Torres and freshman Kari Brekke started each of the first four games of the season for the Wildcats.

The five starters had a total of 26 starts as Wildcats going into the season. Storey started 17 games in the 2015-16 season and Torres started nine games last season.

By contrast, UNH's five starters in its final game last March had a total of 273 starts between them.

THE FRONTCOURT

Ashley Storey, 6-foot-3, returns to lead the team in the frontcourt. Storey started 17 games her freshman year and was named to the America East All Rookie team after averaging 5.4 points and 3.4 rebounds She averaged 4.9 points and 4 rebounds as a sophomore before missing last season.

"We expect a lot from Ashley," Magarity said. "She's come back much stronger and on the court she hasn't missed a beat. We're going to rely on her to rebound and score. She can score in a lot of different ways and can run the floor very well for a big kid."

Sophomore Maggie Ahearn, 6-foot-2, sat out last season after transferring to UNH from Providence College. She played five games as a freshman at Providence.

Storey and Ahearn are joined up front by three freshmen: 6-foot Faith Bonett, 6-foot-2 Ivy Gogolin and 6-foot-3 Mary Foster.

THE BACKCOURT

Sophomore Amanda Torres, 5-foot-7, is the lone returning starter from last season.

"Amanda had a great freshman year and gained a lot of valuable experience when she ended up as the starting point guard," Magarity said. "She needs to step up even more with her leadership this year. She pushes the ball in transition and gets the team going. She's very aggressive off the bounce and her first step is really quick and her outside shooting continues to improve."

Alli Gribbin, a 5-foot-11 senior captain, junior Caroline Soucy, 5-foot-9, and junior Sarah Clement, 5-foot-8, are the upper classmen in the backcourt.

The freshmen guards are 5-foot-6 Kari Brekke, 5-foot-9 Kali Grimm, 5-foot-10 Mariah Gonzalez and 5-foot-5 Sarah Serbascewicz.

THE COACH

Maureen Magarity, in her ninth year as head coach, has led UNH to winning seasons in each of the last two and four of the last five seasons.

She guided the team to a record-smashing mark of 26-6 overall and 15-1 in America East in 2016-17. The 26 wins were three more than the Wildcats had ever won in a season and the league record was the team's best ever and earned the school's first America East women's basketball regular season championship.

Along the way, the team set a school record with 13 consecutive wins.

UNH went 19-12 overall and 9-7 in the league last year. The 45-18 overall record over the last two seasons was the top mark for any two-year stretch in program history.

Magarity has a 130-116 overall record and stands fourth in all-time wins at UNH. She is three wins out of the third spot and six out of the No. 2 spot on the list.

Sue Johnson (133-150 record from 1997 to 2007) holds down the No. 3 spot in wins. Cecilia DeMarco (136-86 from 1977-86) is at No. 2. Kathy Sanborn (170-126 from 1986-97) is at the top of the list.

FIRST TIME FOR EVERYTHING

UNH played Minnesota and North Dakota State for the first time to open the season.

The Wildcats played in front of a sold-out crowd of 14,625 at Minnesota as the Golden Gophers celebrated the return of former school and WNBA standout Lindsay Whalen as head coach.

The opening weekend was not the first time UNH teams had squared off with the Golden Gophers and North Dakota State Bison.

Among the encounters:

The UNH women's hockey team beat Minnesota, 4-1, in the semifinals of the American Women's College Hockey Alliance tournament in 1998.
The Wildcats went on to win the AWCHA title, before the NCAA sponsored the event, with a 4-1 win over Brown.
The Minnesota men's hockey team beat UNH, 5-1, in the NCAA championship game in 2003 in Buffalo.
The UNH football team fell at North Dakota State in the semifinals of the NCAA Division I FCS tournament on Dec. 20, 2013.
The Bison went on to win the national championship. They have won six of the last seven FCS national titles.

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