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SALT LAKE CITY – The Westminster College women's basketball team begins the 2013-14 season with a pair of games this week. Westminster opens with a home game against University of Mary (N.D.) on Wednesday at 6 p.m. MDT in the Behnken Field House. The Griffins will then travel to Provo to face Brigham Young in an exhibition game on Saturday at 3 p.m. MDT.

FOLLOW THE ACTION
Wednesday's night game with Mary will air live on Griffins TV and Comcast 6 in northern Utah. Mike Lageschulte will handle the play-by-play with Lance Barton providing analysis. BYU will provide an audio broadcast of the game on Saturday. Live Stats will be available for both games. Links for all of the live features can be found in the calendar section of WestminsterGriffins.com.

GRIFFIN NOTES
The Griffins start the season with a No. 5 national ranking after going 29-4 and advancing to the quarterfinals of the NAIA National Championships last season. They return five players and two redshirts from that squad. Westminster will look to six newcomers to help replace the 61.7 percent of the offense they lose from last season.

Westminster led the NAIA last season by holding the opposition to 46.91 points per game. They only allowed a team to score 60 points in a game on four occasions during the season and they held 10 opponents to less than 40 points in a game. The opposition shot just 34.2 percent from the field and 28.5 percent from beyond the arc a season ago.

The Griffins finished the season ranked second in the Frontier Conference by scoring 64.06 points per game and led the league by shooting 43.1 percent from the floor. They averaged 6.27 threes per game and were second in the country with a 1.26 assist-to-turnover ratio.

Kelsi Wells returns this season after averaging 9.8 points per game last season as a junior. She was third on the team in scoring while shooting 53.2 percent from the floor and 50 percent from beyond the arc. Tia Pappas is also back for her junior season after scoring 8.1 points per game last season. Pappas pulled down 5.3 rebounds per night and led the team and ranked 28th in the NAIA with 74 steals.

CONFERENCE FAVORITES
Westminster is the five-time defending conference champions and they were the preseason pick of the league's coaches to win the title again this season. They received seven of the possible eight first-place votes and scored 62 points to be picked as the favorite for a second straight season.

NATIONAL RANKING
Westminster received 222 points and will start the season with a No. 5 national ranking after the national office released the NAIA Division I Women's Basketball Preseason Coaches' Top 25 Poll on Tuesday. The Griffins pent all of last season ranked inside the top 10 and they have now been ranked in the top 25 for 24 consecutive polls dating back to Dec. 12, 2011.

WELLS A SCORING THREAT
Kelsi Wells looks to be the top scoring option for the Griffins this season. The senior was name Preseason All-Frontier Conference after scoring 10.3 points per game in league games last season. Wells scored in double figures in 17 games last season and had at least 15 in seven of those games. She also corralled 153 rebounds with 44 assists and 25 steals during the year.

TIA PLAYING DEFENSE
Junior Tia Pappas was selected Preseason All-Frontier Conference by the league coaches after averaging 8.1 points per game last season, The junior was named the sixth player of the year in the league last season when she was second in the league in steals at 2.27 per game and 16th in rebounding with an average of 5.3 per contest. Pappas had at least one steal in 29 of the 33 games she played last season while scoring in double figures on12 occasions.

WELCOME BACK ELLSWORTH
Sophomore Shelby Ellsworth returns after sitting out last season with a knee injury. As a freshman in 2011-12, Ellsworth averaged 9.9 points per game while pulling down 5.6 rebounds per outing. She scored in double figures during 16 games that season with three double-doubles. Ellsworth posted the first 20-20 game in school history when she had 23 points and 20 rebounds in a game versus Cal Maritime.

FOLLOWING THE GRIFFINS
To keep up with all of the latest news and information about the Westminster women's basketball team, fans are encouraged to "Like" the Griffins on Facebook and follow them on Twitter. And as always, make sure to visit WestminsterGriffins.com for all things Griffins during the 2013 season.

LOOKING AHEAD
Westminster will remain at home next weekend for a pair of games. They face defending national champion Westmont (Calif.) in a rematch of their NAIA quarterfinal contest from last March on Nov. 7 at 6 p.m. MDT. The Griffins then play College of Idaho on Nov. 8 at 6 p.m. MDT.