By MATT PIKE
The Missouri Western State University women's basketball team is gearing up for another season with three returners from last year's squad and several new faces.
The man at the helm, head coach Luke Scheidecker, is coming into his second season leading the Griffons, after taking MoWest to a 15-16 record last season, going 9-10 in the MIAA, and coming one game away from a trip to the MIAA Championship game after narrowly falling to Washburn at the end of the season 67-63.
Scheidecker says a second half run in the season for MoWest, in which the Griffons won nine of their last 11 games after a loss to Northwest Missouri State, really transformed the team defensively.
"It starts with getting stops, we want to play fast, we want to score points, we want to lead the country in scoring, but you can't do that without getting stops right?" Scheidecker tells reporters. "And that's where we took the big jump is we locked in defensively better and doing that helps us play faster, helps us get out in transition more, because you get stops consecutive."
Of the three returners, a key for the Griffons this season is getting graduate student Mia Morel back. Morel entered the transfer portal after last season, and saw Division I offers come in, but chose to return to MoWest, where last season she won the MIAA's Newcomer of the Year award. Morel averaged just over 18 points a game on the season and set a conference record for most points scored in the MIAA tournament. She also found her way into the MoWest record books scoring 568 points, the third most in single season in school history.
Morel says her relationship with Scheidecker, who brought her to MoWest from Edward Waters University, is what ultimately made her choose to return to St. Joseph.
"We kind of just talked things over on what was best for me, my decision on coming back," Morel explains. "I had a lot of interest from Division I schools and it was kind of hard for me to choose what I wanted, but just having that leadership role and that experience I can bring, it was a big value to me in the basketball world and that's what brought me back."
Scheidecker admits he honestly didn't think Morel would return, but in helping her through the process, he says the guard returning was to cement her legacy at MoWest
"Leaving here and having an opportunity to be one of the best players in MoWest history," Scheidecker says. "Her names all over the record books from last year, not just at MoWest but in the MIAA, so when you get someone from that caliber back, it sets the tone for what we expect from you."
Nakiya Harris and sophomore Jada Smith are the other two returners. Along with the three returners, 10 new faces will be Griffons this season with six transfers and four freshmen. One transfer is graduate student and three-year starter at Missouri S&T Anna Finley.
Finley averaged nearly 10 points over her three years with just over two assists a game and three rebounds. Her best season came in 2024-25, when she averaged just over 13 points a game and four rebounds a game, scoring 328 points with 30 steals, 65 assists, and 109 rebounds in 25 games, with 24 starts, being named All-GLVC First Team.
Finley says she came to the Griffons for a new opportunity, saying after hearing from Scheidecker she didn't want to go anywhere else, and is excited about this year's team.
"I was really hyped to hear that Mia was coming back and I'd get to play with her, that was really nice coming in, Nakiya is also great to we like to play off each other, which is incredible," Finley says. "I just think our roster is really good, I think we have a lot of newcomers, but I think that everyone has really been meshing well and the preseason has been going really good."
MoWest was ranked No. 7 in the preseason polls by both MIAA coaches and the media. The Griffons begin the season November 6th in the D2CCA Tipoff Classic hosted by Kentucky Wesleyan taking on Gannon University.
Interviews
Head Coach Luke Scheidecker
Mia Morel
Nakiya Harris
Anna Finley
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