The Broncos come in after dropping their season opener at home to Loyola Chicago 60-51. Redshirt junior forward Taylor Williams led the Broncos in scoring in that one, finishing with 21 points.

This will be the 25th time the Spartans and Broncos will meet, with MSU holding a 16-8 record against Western Michigan in the 24 games before their bout on Sunday. The Spartans have won nine straight against the Broncos, with their most recent win coming in 2017 in East Lansing.

The last time the Broncos came away with a win against MSU was 40 years ago in 1982 in Grand Rapids. MSU is 7-3 all-time at home against Western.

Eleventh-year Head Coach Shane Clipfell of the Broncos is a familiar face to Head Coach Suzy Merchant and the Spartans, as he coached on her staff when she was at Eastern Michigan and MSU. At one point he was the associate head coach of the Spartans.

So far, MSU has been near the top of the Big Ten statistics. They are fourth in scoring margin at +40.5 and scoring defense at 45 as well as being third in assists at 21 and steals at 13.

Expect the Spartans to continue to rely heavily on senior forward Taiyier Parks, who recently accomplished a career-high of 18 points against the Mastodons. She finished with nine boards in that one as well.

Despite the solid start, Parks said that the team has to be more disciplined going forward.

"Like coach said just clean it up in the half-court setting and all around," Parks said.

Off the bench, senior guard Moira Joiner has been a spark plug for the green and white. She is averaging 11.5 points per game this season. She scored 13 with three threes against Delaware State in her first game since returning from concussion symptoms that ended her 2021-2022 campaign. She also added 10 against the Mastodons. 

The team has not had the best showing from the 3-point arc to start the season, as they are shooting 25 percent in 48 attempts, but graduate student guard Kamaria McDaniel believes her squad will step it up.

"Just keep shooting man," McDaniel said. "We gonna have off nights, it's not about that. I'm really a person that has a short memory, whether it's good or bad, it's on to the next. We have some great shooters on our team, and they'll start knocking down."

Tipoff is set for 3 p.m. at the Breslin Center.