WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – The Purdue women's basketball team is set for its lone exhibition ahead of the 2026-27 season with a 2 p.m. Saturday tip against Illinois-Chicago at Mackey Arena on B1G+.
Purdue has won 47 straight exhibition contests dating back to 1993. The Boilermakers own a 51-3 all-time record in preseason exhibitions. Purdue is 5-0 in preseason tuneups under Gearlds, averaging 102.4 points per contest and winning by an average of 48.8 points per game.
PROMOTIONS
• Postgame autographs on the concourse.
GAME NOTES
- Head coach Katie Gearlds enters her sixth season at the helm of her alma mater with a new-look roster with 10 newcomers, featuring six transfers and four freshmen.
- Purdue's roster spans eight countries and seven languages, making it one of the most internationally represented teams in the nation. In addition to seven Americans on the roster, Purdue welcomed in Hannah Wickstrom from Australia, Jelena Bulajić from Montenegro, Katka Šedivá from Slovakia, Zoja Štirn from Slovenia, Anjela Minja from Tanzania, Maya Zilbershlag from Israel and Keona Douwstra from the Netherlands.
- Hannah Wickstrom joined the Boilermakers after spending two seasons at UC Riverside. Last season, she finished fifth in the nation with 23.4 points per game. Wickstrom was the only player in the nation to average better than 20 points, 7.0 rebounds, 2.0 assists and 2.0 steals per game in 2025-26.
- The injury bug has already disrupted Purdue's plans this season, as guards Aysia Proctor and Zoja Štirn are out for the year following knee injuries during the preseason.
Purdue is set to play 18 regular-season games at Mackey Arena, which will be tied for the most in program history and the first time since 2018-19. - Maya Zilbershlag missed summer workouts with the Boilermakers. The freshman led her native Israel to its best finish at the U20 Euros, finishing second, before guiding her country to the U18 B Euro title and earning MVP honors. She averaged 16.1 points, 7.4 rebounds and 2.3 assists while knocking down 25 triples over her two 2026 summer events.
- The Boilermakers added a pair of new assistant coaches to the staff Emily Ben-Jumbo, who oversees the recruiting strategy for the program, and Bojan Jankovic, who spent considerable time this summer developing Anjela Minja and Avery Gordon.
- Purdue's roster features players from eight different countries, its widest internationally represented team.
- Purdue's international group brought a winning culture into the program, winning more than 45 regional, national and European titles.
- Senior guard McKenna Layden enters the year 13th on the program's 3-point percentage list with a career clip of 35.5%.
YEAR 6 OF THE KG ERA
• Head coach Katie Gearlds is in her sixth season back at her alma mater after guiding the Boilermakers to the postseason in each of her first three seasons back home.
• Prior to 2024-25, Gearlds inked an extension that will keep her on the sidelines in West Lafayette through 2028-29.
• Before coming back to Purdue, the Boilermakers had endured a three-year postseason drought. After reaching the WNIT in her first campaign, the Boilermakers went back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2017 with their 2023 bid.
• Gearlds guided Purdue to the WNIT Great 8 in 2024, the program’s deepest run in the postseason in 15 years.
• Gearlds took over the program 47 days before her first campaign in 2021-22 when Purdue was coming off a seven-win season and guided Purdue to a 17-15 mark.
• She became the fourth Purdue head coach to reach the postseason in each of her first three seasons, joining Lin Dunn, Kristy Curry and Sharon Versyp.
• Gearlds has racked up four ranked wins, including the program's first true road AP top-5 victory against No. 2 Ohio State in 2022-23.
• She joined the 300-win club for her career with a Barn Burner Trophy victory over Indiana at Mackey Arena last season.
INTERNATIONAL EXPERIENCE
• Purdue's 2026-27 roster is the most internationally represented in program history with players from eight different nations.
• The seven internationals brought a winning culture into the program with more than 45 regional, national and European titles in their combined careers.
• Five nations are represented for the first time at Purdue - Montenegro, Netherlands, Slovakia, Slovenia and Tanzania.
• Purdue now has 18 international players from 12 countries in program history.
• Hannah Wickstrom is the second Boilermaker to come from Australia, after Abbey Ellis (2022-24). Wickstrom arrived at Purdue after spending two years at UC Riverside, where she finished fifth in the nation in scoring last year.
• Maya Zilbershlag is the second Purdue player from Israel. She guided her country to runner-up honors at the 2026 U20 Euros and the championship of the U18 B EuroBasket.
• Katka Šedivá led her club Ružomberok to the Slovak Cup in 2026, earning Slovak Basketball's Talent of the Year.
• Keona Douwstra was slated to join the roster in 2025-26, but delayed her freshman season a year, during which she took her Landslake Lions team to the championship series of the Dutch National League.
• Zoja Štirn signed for the Boilermakers over the summer out of Slovenia, where she won 15 titles at the senior level. She was slated to vie for minutes at the point guard position before a knee injury ruled her out for the year.
• Jelena Bulajić arrived at Purdue following a freshman season at South Florida. The first Montenegrin in school history led her country to the title at the 2024 U18 B EuroBasket.
• Anjela Minja is the fourth player in school history from Africa and the first from Tanzania. She played two years at Gulf Coast State, where former Boilermaker Fatou Diagne came from ahead of her three-year playing career at Purdue.
GONE PORTALING
• Head coach Katie Gearlds and her staff attacked the portal to welcome in six new faces out of the transfer portal.
• Redshirt senior Kyndall Hunter is the most experienced player on Purdue's roster entering her sixth year of college hoops. The Houston native played for her hometown team last year, averaging 9.2 points per game, after spending two years each at Texas A&M and Texas.
• Hannah Wickstrom was a First Team All-Big West selection at UC Riverside after ranking fifth in the nation last year with 23.4 points per game. The Australian international did significant damage at the line, going 146-of-176 last season.
• Averi Aaron came to Purdue off a CUSA regular season title at Louisiana Tech, where she tallied 6.4 points and 4.5 rebounds per game. The native of Boerne, Texas, will stretch the floor from the post position and add a higher level of physicality.
• Jelena Bulajić spent her freshman year at South Florida, averaging 4.7 points per game. A gifted shooter, Bulajić helped guide Montenegro to the 2024 U18 B Euro title.
• Aysia Proctor garnered American All-Conference Second Team honors last season at North Texas, scoring 14.1 points per game to rank sixth in the league. She shot just a hair under 40% from distance last year. Her debut will be delayed for a year after suffering an injury that will keep her out of the season.
SPLASH ZONE
• A core mantra since Katie Gearlds returned to Purdue has been shoot before you turn it over, and the Boilermakers have never been shy when launching it from deep.
• Since her return, Purdue has posted four seasons with 200 or more 3-pointers. The Boilermakers had reached the mark just once in the first 46 years of the program's history.
• The 2025-26 roster finished second in Purdue single-season history with 217 triples.
• Purdue has made seven or more triples 84 times since the start of the 2021-22 campaign.
• Purdue has made 10 or more 3-pointers 23 times in the Katie Gearlds era.