No. 15/20 GANNON GOLDEN KNIGHTS (8-1, 4-1 PSAC) at WHEELING CARDINALS (2-7, 2-4 MEC)
DATE/TIME: Friday, December 31, 2021 | 2:00 p.m.
ARENA/LOCATION: Alma Grace McDonough Center l Wheeling, W.Va.
LIVE VIDEO
LIVE STATS
PURCHASE TICKETS
RADIO: The live radio broadcast on 90.5 WERG will be unavailable during Friday afternoon's game. Please following the action with live video and live stats (links provided above). Also follow @GUKnights on twitter for live game day updates.
 
THE GANNON-WHEELING ALL-TIME SERIES
Gannon leads 7-1
Last Meeting: Dec. 17, 2019 – Gannon 69, Wheeling 63 (at Hammermill Center, Erie, Pa.)
Gannon has won six-straight meetings in the series. However, four of the last five meetings have been decided by seven points or less. Wheeling's lone win in the series came during the 1994-95 season, an 82-59 Cardinal win in Wheeling.
 
SCOUTING THE LADY KNIGHTS
Head coach Cleve Wright's Gannon women's basketball team enters Friday's New Year's Eve game with an 8-1 overall record and a four-game winning streak. Gannon has won by a double-digit margin in each of its last three games, including a 58-46 win over Lock Haven, an 86-45 blowout win over Mansfield and a 79-65 victory over Bloomsburg on Dec. 19 during its last outing.
 
The Knights lone loss of the season came back on Dec. 3, a 63-59 road setback at Shepherd University.
 
Three Golden Knights are averaging double-figure scoring this season, led by 15.3 points per game from Samantha Pirosko (Eastlake, Ohio/Eastlake North). Emma Wright (Fairview, Pa./Talawanda) (12.3) and Delaney Dogan (West Middlesex, Pa./West Middlesex) (11.2) are also averaging double-figure scoring this season. Gannon has seven players averaging 5.0 points per game or more, including Tori Obenrader (Fryburg, Pa./North Clarion) (8.1), Sydney Mitchell (Halethorpe, Md./Seton Keough) (7.4), Emily Poling (Defiance, Ohio/Defiance) (5.8) and Margo Loutzenhiser (Russell, Pa./Warren Area) (5.0). Point guard Boston McKinney (Bolivar, Ohio/Tuscarawas Valley) is also averaging 4.7 points and 4.0 assists per outing for the Knights.
 
Gannon is coming off its top two offensive performances of the season on Dec. 18 and 19. Against Mansfield, Gannon scored a season-best 86 points and shot 52.6 percent from the field. The next day, Gannon scoring 79 points and shot 49.1 percent from the field verses Bloomsburg.
 
Five different players have led Gannon in scoring this season, including Dogan, Obenrader, Pirosko, Poling and Wright. Pirosko has led Gannon in scoring three times this season, while Dogan and Wright have each topped the box score twice this season.
 
GANNON MOVES UP IN BOTH NATIONAL POLLS
The Gannon women's basketball team is once again ranked in both NCAA Division II national polls following three wins this past week. The Golden Knights moved up one spot in the latest WBCA Division II Top 25 Coaches Poll, now sitting in 15th place, and reappeared in the D2SIDA Division II Top 25, ranking 20th.
 
Gannon climbed as high as seventh in the WBCA poll after opening the season with four straight wins. In addition, the Golden Knights were as high as ninth in the D2SIDA poll earlier this season.
 
The top five remained the same in the WBCA poll, with Lubbock Christian (11-1) holding down the top spot and Drury (12-1) ranked second. Texas A&M-Commerce (10-0) stands third, while Lander (8-1) is fourth and Fort Hays State (9-1) rounding out the top five.
 
The D2SIDA poll agrees with the first four spots in the rankings but has Nebraska-Kearney (10-1) in the fifth position. Indiana (Pa.) and Gannon are the lone PSAC teams in either poll. IUP is 14th in the WBCA poll but is not ranked in e D2SIDA poll.
 
2021-22 IN A WORD – ADVERSITY
It's a word that head coach Cleve Wright has used on more than one occasion this year to describe the early portion of the 2021-22 season. The veteran coach has made sure his team ignores a series of injuries and a tough early-season schedule to maintain Gannon's winning tradition. Most recently, leading scorer Samantha Pirosko (Eastlake, Ohio/Eastlake North) missed three-quarters of the Shepherd game, Gannon's lone loss, and all of the Shippensburg game. The latter contest was a rematch of the 2019-20 PSAC Tournament semifinals. Then on Tuesday, Dec. 14, GU was without top reserve Tori Obenrader (Fryburg, Pa./North Clarion), who continues to make her way back following knee surgery that forced her to miss the last nine games last year. Wright continues to get contributions from unexpected sources each game while off to a 8-1 start.
 
PIROSKO MAKES QUICK RETURN
Entering the two-game eastern swing to Shepherd and Shippensburg, Samantha Pirosko (Eastlake, Ohio/Eastlake North) was leading the PSAC in scoring at 21.8 ppg. The 5'10" sophomore would go down with an injury early in the second quarter at Shepherd and sit out the Shippensburg game. She made a quick recovery to play on Tuesday, Dec. 14 against Lock Haven. In 25 minutes, she contributed six points and a team-high seven rebounds. She followed up that performance with 16 points and nine rebounds against Mansfield and 10 points verses Bloomsburg in Gannon's last outing.
 
DOGAN NAMED PSAC DEFENSIVE ATHLETE OF THE WEEK PRIOR TO HOLIDAYS
Delaney Dogan (West Middlesex, Pa./West Middlesex), a post from West Middlesex, Pa., averaged 12.0 points, 8.3 rebounds, 2.3 assists, 2.0 blocks and 1.3 steals per game in a 3-0 week for the Golden Knights. Nineteen of her team-high 25 rebounds were on the defensive end. Dogan shot just under 64 percent from the floor for the week.
 
Dogan began the week with 20 points, four rebounds, two blocks and one steal in a win over Lock Haven. She went 8-of-12 from the floor and led the Knights in scoring against the Bald Eagles. In Saturday's win over Mansfield, Dogan finished with four points, 10 rebounds, four assists, two blocks and two steals. She wrapped up the busy week with her second double-double of the season with 12 points, 11 rebounds, two assists and two blocks against Bloomsburg on Sunday.
 
Dogan has had a big year in the post for Gannon this season, recording double-figure scoring six times in nine games. She also had two 20-point scoring performances and is shooting over 65 percent from the floor this season.
 
WRIGHT, PIROSKO EARN BACK-TO-BACK PSAC WEST ATHLETE OF THE WEEK HONORS
Emma Wright (Fairview, Pa./Talawanda) was named the PSAC West Athlete of the Week for her performance in the Shepherd and Shippensburg games (12/6/21). Wright led Gannon with 17 points in the Ship win, matching her career high, adding seven rebounds and a pair of assists. Seven of her points came in the decisive fourth quarter. She scored 11 points at Shepherd, but more importantly, held Abby Beeman, the second-leading scorer in the PSAC, to just eight points, all in the fourth quarter.
 
Samantha Pirosko (Eastlake, Ohio/Eastlake North) was the PSAC West Athlete of the Week the previous week (11/29/21). The 5'10" sophomore led Gannon to wins over Lynn and host Florida Southern in the Terrace Hotel Thanksgiving Classic. She scored 27 points against Florida Southern, her fourth straight game in double digits and the second game with 20-or-more points. In 29 minutes, she made 9-of-12 field goals, including her lone 3-point attempt, while going a perfect 8-for-8 at the line. She added four rebounds, an assist and a steal. The day before, the native of Eastlake, Ohio had 13 points, five rebounds, and six steals.

GANNON IN THE PSAC STATS
Scoring Offense – 70.3 (5^th)
Scoring Defense – 57.9 (5^th)
Field Goal Pct. -- .444 (3^rd)
Field Goal Pct. Defense -- .397 (13^th)
3FGM per Game – 5.8 (6^th)
Rebound Margin -- +4.1 (3^rd)
Turnover Margin -- +4.22 (3^rd)
 
WRIGHT IN 14TH SEASON AS GANNON'S HEAD COACH
Cleve Wright is in his 14th season as Gannon's head coach, and 19th overall as a head coach. He is actually in his second stint at Gannon. He enjoyed tremendous success while guiding the Golden Knights from 2002-13, posting a 233-100 record with five NCAA Tournament appearances and a PSAC title. After four seasons as the head coach at Miami (Ohio) and another two years as the associate head coach at Eastern Illinois, Wright returned to Gannon in 2019-20. He guided GU to a 25-6 ledger in his return, with the Golden Knights defeating seventh-ranked IUP, 50-40, in the PSAC Championship game. On the eve of hosting half of the bracket of the NCAA Division II Atlantic Regional, the pandemic shut everything down. Wright owns an overall record of 314-195 and is 279-108 at Gannon.
 
WRIGHT ADDS FORMER KNIGHT BATTS, BRAUN AS ASSISTANT COACHES
Cleve Wright added a pair of assistant coaches to his staff late this summer. His staff is now comprised of former Gannon standout Brittany Batts, plus Allison Braun, who was a standout at McDowell High School. Batts played for the Lady Knights from 2011-15, currently ranking 20th in career scoring with 1,152 points while appearing in 125 games. She holds the top two season figures for 3-pointers made with 102 in 2012-13 and 93 in 2013-14. She ranks second in career 3-pointers made (286) and attempts (688) and is fifth in 3-point field goal percentage (.416). Batts helped lead the Lady Knights to a 102-24 record and four NCAA postseason appearances. She has already worked as an assistant coach at the Division I, II, and III levels while in the early stages of her coaching career. She joins the Lady Knights after working as an assistant at Division I Chicago State last year. Prior to that, she was a member of the Shepherd coaching staff in 2018-19 and 2019-20.  She began her coaching career as a graduate assistant at Castelton University in 2015, then moved on to Bridgewater College (Va.) in 2017-18.
 
Braun joins the Gannon staff after serving as an assistant coach at SUNY Cortland the last three years. During the 2019-20 season she was part of Cortland's coaching contingent that was named the SUNYAC Coaching Staff of the Year. The Red Dragons finished 22-7, advanced to the finals of the SUNYAC tournament, earned an NCAA Division III tournament at-large bid. Braun played four years at Division I Canisius College from 2009-13. She was voted as the team's Most Valuable Player by her teammates in both her junior and senior years. Braun appeared in 108 career games, with 53 starts.
 
GU SIGNS PAIR OF RECRUITS
Head coach Cleve Wright and his staff signed a pair of recruits to national letters of intent recently, grabbing both from the Buckeye state. Briana Claxon is a 5'7" guard from South Webster (Ohio) High School, while Andrea Maibach is a 6'2" forward from Norwayne (Ohio) High School. Claxon is a two-time All-Ohio selection who averaged 24.4 ppg. as a junior. Maibach has led Norwayne in rebounding the last two years, with a 23-3 finish a year ago.
 
NEXT FOR THE GOLDEN KNIGHTS
Following New Year's Eve at Wheeling, Gannon will prepare for a showdown with cross-town rival Mercyhurst University on Wednesday, Jan. 5 at the Hammermill Center. The game is set for a 5:30 p.m. tipoff.