HAMPTON, Va. – The Hampton University women's basketball team will open their 2016-17 season with the first of eight straight road games as they take on the Northwestern Wildcats on Friday afternoon at 4:30 pm EST.

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THE OPPONENT
The Lady Pirates are 0-2 against Northwestern.  The Wildcats won the last meeting 62-36 on Nov. 16, 2014 in Evanston, Illinois.
 
LADY PIRATES VS. BIG TEN
Hampton is 1-6 all-time vs, current members of the Big Ten conference.  They are 1-1 against Maryland, 0-1 against Nebraska, Penn State and Wisconsin and 0-2 against Northwestern.
 
SCOUTING THE WILDCATS
Northwestern is a senior-laden team with five seniors on its roster under seventh-year head coach Joe McKeown.  The Wildcats are headed by preseason All-Big 10 selection Nia Coffey who averaged 20.3 points and 9.8 rebounds per game.
 
LADY PIRATES PICKED TO FINISH THIRD
Hampton was picked to finish third in the MEAC this season in a preseason poll voted on by the league's head coaches and sports information directors. The Lady Pirates wound up third in the conference standings after going 11-5 in MEAC play last season.
 
MALIA MOVING UP ON TWO LISTS
Heading into her final season with 1,939 career points, senior Malia Tate DeFreitas is moving up on a pair of career scoring lists.

At Hampton she is currently third behind LaShondra Dixon-Gordon (1,967 points) and Jackie Dolberry (2,727).  Passing Dixon-Gordon will make Tate-DeFreitas the school's all-time Division I scoring leader as Dolberry played from 1985-89.

In the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, she is currently in eighth and ironically trailing Dixon-Gordon for seventh on that list.  The all-time MEAC scoring leader is Alisha Hill from Howard with 2,179 points from 1994-98.
 
For more information on Hampton University women's basketball, please contact the Office of Sports Information at 757-727-5906 or visit the official Pirates website at www.hamptonpirates.com.