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RHODE ISLAND vs. WEST VIRGINIA - series notes 

• Rhode Island women's basketball opens the 2026-27 season Tuesday at No. 24 West Virginia. 
• The Rams and the Mountaineers are meeting for the 25th time in program history.
• The last time the two teams faced, West Virginia beat URI 80-47 in Kingston on Nov. 24, 2007.
• Rhode Island snapped an 11-game win streak by the Mountaineers and won the next four straight meetings against West Virginia during the 1988-95 seasons.
• The Mountaineers are 17-7 all-time against Rhode Island.
• The first-ever meeting between the two schools was a 75-66 Rhody win in Kingston.
• The game will be the season debut for Rhode Island head coach Colleen Mullen, who enters her first year leading the helm in 2026-27.

SCOUTING THE MOUNTAINEERS

• West Virginia enters 2026-27 ranked 24th nationally in the AP Preseason Poll and are fresh off winning the 2026 Big 12 Women's Basketball Tournament and hosting the first and second rounds of the NCAA Tournament.
• Head coach Mark Kellogg has brought the Mountaineers into the national spotlight across his first three seasons in Morgantown. 
• He has led WVU to back-to-back-back NCAA Tournament runs and 45 appearances in the Associated Press Top 25 polls. 
• The Mountaineer roster features two returners and 10 newcomers.
• WVU is headlined by senior guard Gia Cooke, who was named to the Big 12 Conference Preseason Team. 
• She enters the season off a breakout campaign in which she became West Virginia's leading scorer and one of the Big 12's most dangerous offensive threats. Cooke started 34 games and averaged a team-best 15.0 points per game. 
• Most recently, Cooke was named to the 2026-27 Jersey Mikes Naismith Trophy Watch List.
• Ten newcomers join the roster, including transfers like Skylar Forbes (Marquette), Zahirah Walton (George Mason), Khyala Ngodu (UCF), Kennedy Harris (George Mason), Marya Hudgins (BYU), Hawa Doumbouya (VCU), Alexis Bordas (Duquesne), Nylah Wilson (Pitt), and Divine Tumba (Pitt).  The Mountaineers round out their roster with freshman Chante Murray.
• The Rams will see familiar faces in Walton and Harris, who were members of the George Mason team URI beat to win the Atlantic 10 title. Doumbouya and Bordas are also familiar foes as former members of A10 teams.

RAMS VS. RANKED OPPONENTS

• It's the fourth consecutive season the Rams have had a ranked opponent on their schedule.
• Rhody is 2-2 in the last four meetings with nationally-ranked teams. 
• A year ago, Rhode Island upset No. 16 NC State 68-63. It was the first ranked win since the Rams upset No. 25 Princeton 60-58 in the 2023-24 season. 
• Rhody faced two nationally-ranked opponents in 2023-24, falling to No. 14 NC State 67-58 before upsetting the Tigers.  
• In 2024-25, URI faced No. 22 Iowa in the Cancun Challenge and fell in a close battle 69-62.