FORT MYERS, Fla. – The IU Indy women's basketball team will travel to Fort Myers, Florida for the FGCU Holiday Classic this weekend. During the quick trip, the Jags will face East Tennessee State on Friday (December 20) and North Carolina A&T on Saturday (December 21). Both games are set for a 1:00 PM tipoff.
IU Indy's previous match up came against Purdue Fort Wayne. The IU Indianapolis women's basketball team came up short in a hard-fought contest on Wednesday, December 11, falling 79-71. The Jaguars held the lead for the majority of the game, but the Mastodons mounted a strong fourth-quarter rally to close out the victory.
The Jaguars started the season off hot at the three-point line, totaling 13 threes in the season opener against Evansville, two more than the season high during the 2023-24 season. Six different Jags recorded a three in the win with newcomer
Nevaeh Foster leading
the way, shooting 5-for-7 from behind the arc. Sophomore
Shania Nichols-Vannett added three three-pointers. The Jaguars' three ball dipped in the following games until Wednesday's loss to the Mastodons. IU Indy shot .531 percent from beyond the arc, totaling 11 three-pointers, led by Nichols-Vannett shooting 6-for-7.
While the Jags are averaging 63.0 points per game, newcomer
Shania Nichols-Vannett leads the team in scoring with 12.8 points per game. The sophomore totaled a career-high 37 points in the loss against Southern Illinois which puts her at the top in the Horizon League for total points scored by a player in a single game this season.
Faith Stinson follows with 9.9 points per game.
Head coach
Kate Bruce returns to her alma mater, Florida Gulf Coast, where she was inducted into the FGCU Athletics Hall of Fame in 2023. During her two years as a student-athlete at FGCU, Bruce earned honorable mention All-American honors after a 2006-07 season after she led FGCU in scoring (15.1 points per game) and rebounding (7.2 rebounds per game). She scored 20 or more points in nine games and had seven games with at least 10 rebounds. Bruce's 453 points scored in 2006-07 was the second-highest single-season total at the time at FGCU, and her 215 rebounds are the third most in a season.
East Tennessee State earned wins over Gardner-Webb, Tennessee Tech, Presbyterian, Memphis, UVA Wise, Radford and UNC Asheville for a 7-5 overall record. North Carolina A&T enters the weekend 2-6 overall with wins over Winton-Salem State and North Carolina Central. This will be the first time the Jags have faced either team in program history.
IU Indy will tip off against ETSU at 1:00 PM on Friday, December 20 then finish out the trip with a 1:00 PM tip on Saturday, December 21 against North Carolina A&T.
