Nov. 7, 2008

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - The Purdue women's basketball team plays its first and only exhibition game of the year on Sunday, Nov. 4 at 2 p.m. in Mackey Arena.

The opponent is OGBR, an exhibition team comprised primarily of former Big Ten players, including Purdue's own Erika Valek. The 23rd-ranked Boilermakers have played the Legends five times since 2001 and holds a 5-0 advantage. In the last meeting, the Boilermakers defeated OGBR on Nov. 2, 2006, by a 70-41 margin. The five wins have come by an average of 24.0 points per game. In four of the five previous matchups the team name was OGBM Legends. The acronym OGBR, stands for Ohio Girls Basketball Report, a scouting service for girls basketball in the state of Ohio.

Single-game tickets are $12 for adults and $5 for students (age 3 through college) and can be purchased at the Purdue Athletics Ticket Office in IAF starting one hour before tipoff or online by clicking here.

The game can be heard on WBPE 95.3 FM and on rivals.yahoo.com.

A Look At The OGBR Legends
The OGBR Legends are coordinated by Tom Jenkins, the executive director of the Ohio Girls Basketball Report scouting service. Jay-Bee Bethea is the coach. As of Nov. 7, the Legends have lost to Ohio University, Pittsburgh and Dayton and defeated Toledo and Xavier. A look at their results and remaining schedule:
Oct. 31 at Ohio - L 61-68 OT
Nov. 3 at Toledo - W 76-70 OT
Nov. 4 at Xavier - W 75-67
Nov. 5 at Pittsburgh - L 58-73
Nov. 6 at Dayton - L 51-73
Nov. 7 at Cincinnati
Nov. 8 at Bowling Green
Nov. 9 at Purdue
Nov. 10 at IUPUI

Purdue In Exhibition Games
-Purdue is 33-3 in preseason exhibition games.
- Purdue first played a preseason exhibition game Nov. 11, 1989, beating a New Zealand team 79-57.
-Purdue's last preseason exhibition game was an 77-54 win against the Lady Stars on Nov. 4, 2007.
-Purdue's is 5-0 against the Legends and last played them on Nov. 2, 2006, winning 70-41.

Welcome Back Valek
A Purdue fan favorite returns to Mackey Arena as a member of the OGBR Legends. In her freshman year with the Boilermakers, point guard Erika Valek started all 33 games in which she played. In fact, every game appearance of her career was a start, for a total of 131 career starts, which is still a Purdue record. Valek, a native of Colombia, overcame a knee injury that cut her freshman season short. She tore her ACL in the NCAA Mideast Regional semifinal vs. No. 13 Texas Tech, but was back at the start of her sophomore season in the fall of 2001. As a junior, Valek averaged 14 points per game and was chosen as 2003 first team All-Big Ten by the coaches. Following her senior year, Valek was awarded the 2004 Frances Pomeroy Naismith Award as the best NCAA Division I basketball player 5-foot-8 or under.

After graduating in 2004, Valek played basketball overseas. She played the 2004-05 season in Kastoria, Greece, before moving to Columbia, South America, to play for her national team in the summer of 2005. She then played in Adona, Turkey for the 2005-06 season. After playing in Columbia again in summer 2006, Valek began to suffer from severe heel pain and was diagnosed with plantar fasciitis. She moved back home to Zionsville, Ind., to recover. In 2008, she played 17 games with Caja Rural Verona.