PENSACOLA, Fla. – The UWF women's basketball team will open a much-anticipated season this weekend with a pair of home games in the renovated UWF Field House. 
 
The Argonauts will face Palm Beach Atlantic on Friday evening and No. 9 Eckerd on Saturday. Both games will begin at 5:30 p.m. Valdosta State will play Eckerd on Friday and PBA on Saturday with both games starting at 7:30 p.m.
 
TICKETS & PROMOTIONS: Ticket prices are $8 for adults and $5 for youth and seniors. The first 100 fans on Friday will receive a certificate for a free Honey Butter Chicken Biscuit from Whataburger. On Saturday, any fan who presents their UWF football game ticket will be admitted for free.
 
GSC HOOPS ON FLOSPORTS: Earlier this summer, the GSC member schools voted to expand the conference's partnership with FloSports to include women's volleyball, and men's and women's basketball. That means that any game hosted by a GSC school will be streamed on FloSports. 
 
Fans can sign up at: https://go.flosports.tv/partner/gulf-south?utm_medium=partner&utm_source=multiple&utm_content=landingpage&utm_term=gsc&utm_campaign=gulfsouth&contract_id=0063m00000i6neeaa2&sp=conf-partner

Watch live or archived FloSports broadcasted events on your smart TV or mobile devices by downloading the FloSports app available on Amazon Fire TV, Roku, Apple TV, Chromecast, as well as the Apple App store and Google Play Store.
 
ABOUT UWF: UWF went 22-7 last season and finished in third place with a 20-4 record, just a game behind co-champions Lee and Union – both of whom the Argos beat during the season.
 
Head coach Stephanie Lawrence Yelton enters her 12th season in Pensacola and has a 190-121 record with four 20-win campaigns, four NCAA Tournament appearances and eight winning records. She became the program's winningest coach last year and ranks ninth all-time in victories in the GSC.
 
The Argos 2023-24 roster features four returnees, seven transfers and two freshmen.
 
ARGOS PICKED FOURTH IN GSC POLL: UWF women's basketball team was picked to finish fourth in the Gulf South Conference this season according to the preseason coaches poll that was announced last week. UWF received one first-place vote and a total of 114 poll points.
 
Defending champion Union was picked first with 140 points and nine first-place votes, Lee was second with 128 points and one vote, and Valdosta State was third with 127 points and two votes. 
 
West Georgia, Delta State and West Alabama rounded out the top-half of the 13-team league, with Alabama Huntsville, Montevallo, Mississippi College, Christian Brothers, Auburn Montgomery and Shorter in spots 8-13, respectively.
 
GSC PRESEASON COACHES POLL
Rk. School Total Points
1. Union (9) 140
2. Lee (1) 128
3. Valdosta State (2) 127
4. West Florida (1) 114
5. West Georgia 94
6. Delta State 87
7. West Alabama 68
8. Alabama Huntsville 63
9. Montevallo 60
10. Mississippi College 44
11. Christian Brothers 43
12. Auburn Montgomery 31
13. Shorter 15
First-place votes in parenthesis ( )
 
ABOUT PBA: PBA returns it's top three scorers from a year ago in Darria Whitley, Kash Ayuso and Mariyah Fletcher, each of whom averaged at least 10 points per game. The Sailfish went 10-16 a year ago and 6-14 in Sunshine State Conference play. They were picked to finish sixth this season in the preseason coaches poll.
 
SERIES HISTORY: UWF leads the series 4-0, including a 79-70 win in Valdosta at the 2021 season-opening Crossover event.
 
ABOUT ECKERD: Eckerd is coming off a 26-6 mark from a year ago and appeared in the NCAA Tournament for the seventh time in the last eight seasons. The Tritons return three players from that team – Hannah Wentworth, Lauryn Vieira, and Ieve Korzane – and brought in five transfers and a pair of freshmen. They ended last season ranked 10th in 3-pointers per game, 14th in assist-to-turnover ratio, 15th in field goal percentage, 22nd in scoring margin, and 24th in 3-point percentage.

SERIES HISTORY: UWF leads the series 4-3. The Tritons claimed a 53-28 win in Valdosta in last year's opener. The Argos lead 2-1 in games played in Pensacola with the last meeting coming in the 2010-11 season.