Arkansas State vs Texas State

February 25, 2016 | 5:00 -.m.

Jonesboro, Arkansas | Convocation Center

Video: ESPN3 Video/Audio | Live Stats | Tickets



KEY STORYLINES

• This is the 42nd season of women's basketball at Arkansas State.

• The Red Wolves have an all-time record of 246-143 against league teams.

• Arkansas State is coming off a 85-64 victory at Georgia State.

• A-State has the fifth longest win streak in the nation at 16 games.

• Khadija Brown-Haywood was named the SBC Student Athlete of the Week for the third time this season earlier this week.

• A-State can clinch the outright SBC regular season championship with a win Thursday.

• A-State was at 41 in the latest RPI rankings released by the NCAA this past week.

• Thursday's game is the annual Play4Kay Pink Game.

• Aundrea Gamble is just one of two players in the nation to aveage over 18 points, four assists and shoot over 50 percent per game.

AN A-STATE WIN WOULD

• Extend A-State's best start in school history to 23-3.

• Give A-State 23 wins through 26 games for the 1st time in school history.

• Give A-State 17 or more wins in Sun Belt play for the first time in their history.

• Make A-State 17-0 to start SBC play for the 1st time in their history.

• Give Arkansas State its 47th SBC victory over the last three years.

• Give the Red Wolves their 69th victory over the last three years.

• Give A-State head coach Brian Boyer his 295th career win.

SIXTEEN GAMES AND COUNTING

• A-State has an 16 game winning streak entering Thursday's contest against Texas State.

• It is the first time in program history that A-State has had a 16 game winning streak.

• The streak is fifth longest in the country.

• Khadija Brown-Haywood is averaging 19.1 points and 10.0 rebounds per game during the streak, which also covers all of the Red Wolves SBC games.

THE MAGIC NUMBER IS.......

• A-State magic number to clinch the outright regular season Sun Belt Conference championship is one game heading into this week's home games.

• The Red Wolves have a four-game lead over second-place Little Rock and five-game lead over third-place Louisiana-Lafayette as of Feb. 23.

• Any win over A-State's final four games would gurantee the Red Wolves the outright SBC regular season championship.

• A-State can also clinch with a Little Rock loss over their last three games.

ANYTHING YOU CAN DO I CAN DO TOO

• Aundrea Gamble and Khadija Brown-Haywood have been trading great performance for great performance over their last four games.

• Gamble has turned in point totals of 30-12-8-31 during the stretch while Brown-Haywood has had games of 13-29-30-20. Gamble has a double-double during the span, while Brown-Haywood has had three.

• Brown-Haywood has averaged 23.0 points, 9.0 rebounds and has shot 53.6% from the field. She also has a 55.6% 3-point field goal percentage and has made 85.0% of her free throws.

• Gamble has averaged 20.3 points, 6.3 rebounds and has shot 53.7% from the field. She also has a 53.8% 3-point field goal percentage and has made 84.2% of her free throws.

RPI WATCH

• Arkansas State is ranked as a No. 41 RPI coming into Thursday's contest with Texas State.

• The 41 ranking is the highest the Red Wolves have been in the last three years.

BRACKETOLOGY 101

• A-State is listed as a No. 12 seed in the latest ESPN Bracketology report produced by Charlie Creme.

• The Red Wolves are predicted to play No. 5 Mississippi State in Tallahassee, Fla.

WE'RE GOING STREAKING

• A-State has won 22 straight games home games dating back to the 2013-14 season.

• It is now the longest home winning streak in school history.

• The streak is the 5th longest streak in the nation.

• During the streak A-State has outscored its opponents 1,590 to 1,236 and has a +16.1 average scoring margin.

• Additionally A-State has shot a blistering 45.3% from the field during the run, while holding opponents to 38.2%.

ANOTHER WEEK ANOTHER AWARD FOR KD

• Khadija Brown-Haywood captured her third Student-Athlete of the Week Award on Feb. 22 when she averaged 25.0 points and 10.5 rebounds as the Red Wolves against Georgia Southern and Georgia State.

• She scored a career-high 30 points against Georgia Southern.

LEADING THE BELT

• Arkansas State leads the Sun Belt in six statistical categories (scoring margin, free throw percentage, field goal percentage, 3-point field goal percentage, turnover margin and assist/ turnover ratio).

• A-State ranks in the top five in 16 of the Sun Belt's 21 statisitcal team categories.

GOOD COMPANY TO HAVE

• Aundrea Gamble is just one of two players in the nation to average better than 18 points, four assists and shot over 50 percent from the field on the year.

• The only other player in the nation with those numbers is UCONN's Breanna Stewart.

SENIOR CLASS AWARD TOP 10 FINALIST

• Arkansas State senior guard Aundrea Gamble is one of 10 finalists among Division I women's basketball named as a candidate for the 2016 Senior Class Award.

• She is the first women's basketball player from A-State to be named a top-10 finalists for the award.

• Fan, media and coach voting help determine the winner. Fans can go vote for Gamble at www.seniorclassaward.com.

• An acronym for Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School®, the Senior CLASS Award honors the attributes of NCAA Division I senior student-athletes in four areas: community, classroom, character and competition.

#AStateWB is #NOLABound

• Arkansas State officially punched its ticket to the Sun Belt Conference tournament after its victory over Louisiana-Lafayette on Feb. 11.

• This is the earliest that A-State has secured its berth to the tournament, beating its previous mark by one day. In each of the last two seasons the Red Wolves clinched on Feb. 12.

• This will be A-State's 24th trip to the Sun Belt Conference Tournament which is scheduled to run March 9-12 in New Orleans at Lake Front Arena.

THE 1600-400-400 CLUB

• Aundrea Gamble is one of just seven current active Division I players to have over 1,600 points, 400 rebounds and 400 assists in a career.

• The other six players on the list include Rachel Banham (Minnesota), Kim Demmings (Wright St.), Amersty Alston (Ohio St.), Ariel Hearn (Memphis), Tiasha Gray (Austin Peay) & Cartaesha Macklin (Southern Ill.).

AP VOTING

• A-State received seven points in the AP Top-25 poll that was released on Feb.21, up from two points vote in the previous weeks' poll.

• The only time the Red Wolves were ranked in the poll was Jan. 3, 2000 when the team was No. 24 for one week, before dropping out of the rankings the following week.

A RARE FIRST

• For the first time in the Brian Boyer coaching era at Arkansas State, three players socred 20 or more points in a game in the Red Wolves' 94-80 victory over Troy on Feb. 5.

• Khadija Brown-Haywood (23), Jessica Flanery (22) and Aundrea Gamble (21) all reached the 20-point mark to accomplish the rare feat in A-State history.

IT'S RAINING 3'S....AGAIN

• For the second time this season Jessica Flanery drained six 3-pointers in a game, equaling the mark in A-State's Feb. 6 win over Troy.

• She also made six 3-pointers at Texas State earlier this season, the second time in her career that she had accomplished the feat at Texas State's Strahan Coliseum.

ELITE COMPANY

• A-State is the only team in the country with 16 conference wins entering Thursday's game.

• UCONN (15-0), Notre Dame (14-0), FGCU (13-0), South Carolina (12-0), Colorado State (14-0), Penn (9-0), UC Riverside (12-0) and New Mexico State (12-0) are all undefeated in conference play.

THESE GIRLS ARE GOOD

• Over the last two season the A-State Women's Basketball and A-State Women's Vollyeball teams are a combined 41-3 in the Convocation Center.

• The volleyball squad went 8-2 in 2015 and a perfect 8-0 this past year.

• The basketball team went 14-1 during the 2014-15 season and is 11-0 this season.

• Neither has lost a game at the Convo this season.

NATIONAL RECOGNITION

• ESPN.com Graham Hays recently ranked Arkansas State in No. 9 in his latest top-10 mid-major poll that was released on the website on Feb. 3.

• A-State was ranked No. 10 in his previous poll.

• A-State has beaten the No. 1 team on Hays' list, Florida Gulf Coast.

QUARTERLY REVIEW

• The Arkansas State defense has done a very good of keeping teams from scoring "big quarters" against them this season. Out of a possible 92 quarters, the Red Wolves defense has held its opponents to to 15 or fewer points 52 times. Teams have scored 10 or fewer points 19 times.

• On the other end of the floor, the A-State offense has been able to produce big quarters and has scored 20 or more points 42 times this season.

• The squad has scored 25 points in a quarter 12 times and has two 30-plus point quarter.

NO ONE ELSE IN THE NATION CAN CLAIM THIS

• Aundrea Gamble ranks 10th in the nation among active players with a career scoring average of 18.7 points per game, and also ranks 15th in the nation with a career assists average of 4.56.

• No other active players in Division I ranks in the top-15 of both categories.





A TOUGH PLACE TO WIN

• A-State became just the 10th team since Florida Gulf Coast became Division I in 2006-07 to defeat the Eagles on their home court.

• With the 62-48 victory, A-State made FGCU 116-10 (as of Nov. 28) on their home court since joining Division I.