Photo Courtesy of Mike Dickie
Posted: Nov 01, 2020
2020-21 Home Opener
Siena Heights Saints (0-0)
VS
Grace Christian (0-1)
Monday, November 2, 2020
SHU Fieldhouse | Adrian, Mich. | 7:30 PM
Upcoming for Saints Women's Basketball: Starting the season off, the Saints were chosen as second in the WHAC coaches' preseason poll. The Saints will host Grace Christian to begin the 2020-21 season.
Broadcast: Monday's game will be streamed on the Siena Heights Sports Network via YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/c/shusaints
Head Coach: In her 16 seasons as head coach, Sue Syljebeck has 271 wins with the Saints, she ranks first in all-time wins for the program's history. Syljebeck reached her 200th win in the 2015-16 season.
Wrapping up 2019: Last season, the Lady Saints were 27-6 overall with three of those losses being in a conference. They averaged 75.5 points a game with a field goal shooting percentage of 45. They never lost more than two games in a row and won 16 out of their 18 home games last season. At the end of the season, the team totaled 2,416 points and also averaged 41 rebounds per game.
Home Openers: The Saints have four wins for home openers in the past seven seasons. Many of these games have been played against Spring Arbor University. As for season openers, the Saints are 6 for 7 showing that they come out of the gate hot and ready to play.
Scouting Christian Grace: Christian Grace started their season off this year with a loss against Grace College 60-87. Their lead scorer was Bre Vanfleet with a total of 14 points, along with 5 offensive rebounds and a free throw percentage of 66. Coming in at second for Christian Grace was Bailey Fitzpatrick with ten. This will be the first time that the Saints and Christian Grace have faced off for women's basketball.
As a team, the Tigers have scored 60.0 points per game and have been outscored by 27 points through one game of the year. They made 22-59 field goal attempts for a team shooting percentage of .373. From beyond the arc, Grace Christian was 3-12 (.250) and 13-26 (.500) from the charity stripe.
For ball control stats, the Tigers hauled in 47 rebounds for a -6.0 margin. They committed 39 turnovers and have a 0.4 assist/turnover ratio while scoring 13 points off of turnovers.
Returning Award Winners: Peyton Banks was named the WHAC player of the year along with an All-WHAC 1st-Team selection. Kelsey Wyman was named to the 2nd-Team All-WHAC.
Top returning players: Banks was the team's leading scorer (15.8 PPG), rebounder (8.3 RPG), three-point (45.3%), and free throw (92.8%) shooter.
Wyman was third on the team in points per game with 11.8. She also averaged 3.3 rebounds per game, the second-most among returning SHU players.
In total, the Saints return 10 players who were in the program last year to the varsity roster. Those student-athletes are joined by six newcomers who round out the 16-member varsity roster.
