The Ursuline College basketball team opens up its defense of the Great Midwest Athletic Conference Championship from a year ago on Thursday by hosting Davis & Elkins College.
 
The Arrows, who won both the regular season and tournament championships last season, enter Thursday's contest with the Senators with an 8-5 overall record while the Senators have won eight of their first 10 games this season.
 
Ursuline is coming off back-to-back wins over Tiffin and Notre Dame College last week after Christmas break while Davis & Elkins had a four-game winning streak snapped against Lenoir Rhyne (NC) 79-60 on December 19.
 
The Senators feature the G-MAC's leading scorer in senior Stephanie Wooten who is averaging 21.5 points per game. Earlier this season, Wooten became the conference's all-time leading scorer just ahead of Ursuline senior Erica Huber.
 
Last season, Ursuline won the first meeting in Pepper Pike 91-55 and were led by sophomore Natalie Koenig who finished with 19 points on 7-for-12 shooting from the field. Junior Camryn Hill added 18 points while senior Erica Huber and sophomore Brigan Wymer added 12 and 10 points respectively.
 
As a team, Ursuline shot 43 percent from the field and committed just nine turnovers compared to forcing Davis & Elkins into 19.
 
The two squads met again in late February in Elkins, West Virginia and the Arrows once again pulled a win 79-63 despite holding just a 36-33 edge at the half. Ursuline outscored Davis & Elkins 22-8 in the third quarter as they pulled away for the win. Huber finished with 18 points in the game to lead Ursuline and also surpassed the 1,000-point mark in her career.
 
The Arrows will remain home on Saturday to host Alderson Broaddus at 2:00 PM before heading out to play five straight games on the road beginning with a trip to Kentucky and Nashville next week.