Women Return To Action Wednesday Night On The Road

2013-14 Truman Women's Basketball Game Notes:

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Live Stats (Fan Stats | Media Stats) (Road Games)
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GLVC WBB

KIRKSVILLE, Mo. – Returning to action after an 11-day layoff, the Truman Women's Basketball team will take to the road to face former conference foe Pittsburg (Kan.) State University on Wednesday night at 6:30 p.m.

Game Coverage
Wednesday's game can be found on the radio dial at 104.7 FM KRES and free online at CentralMOInfo.com. Monte Schisler will handle the play-by-play duties with a pregame show beginning 15 minutes prior to tip.

Live stats and live video links, if available from the host site, will be available on the women's basketball schedule page on TrumanBulldogs.com

Game Preview:
The Bulldogs will try to stop a four-game losing streak to the Gorillas on Wednesday night. The Gorillas defeated Truman 63-48 last season, also in John Lance Arena in Pittsburg, Kan., behind Lauren Brown's 19 points and Lizzy Jeronimus' 15. Amy Briggs led Truman with 11 points but as a team, Truman shot a season-low 23.7% from the field and was 7-of-24 from behind the three-point arc.

Nicole Gloor has averaged 12 points per game in five contests against the Gorillas for her career and had 22 in a 2011 one-point loss to Pittsburg State. Allie Norton was held scoreless in last year's game missing on all eight of her field goal attempts.

Jeronimus has averaged 20.6 points in three games against Truman in her career. She scored 15 after picking up three first-half fouls last season and scored 23 and 24 points in wins during the 2011 season.

The two teams have two previous common opponents in Northwest Missouri and Quincy (Ill.). The Gorillas have played Northwest twice winning each by scores of 51-44 and 57-55 while Truman defeated the Bearcats 91-71. The Lady Hawks defeated the Gorillas 80-59 on November 27 while the Bulldogs were downed by Quincy 79-75 in their most recent outing.

The Gorillas have played two other GLVC opponents with a loss to the University of Indianapolis 82-73 and a victory over William Jewell (Mo.) 80-58.

About the Bulldogs (6-2; 0-1 GLVC)
Four Bulldogs, led by junior Allie Norton average over 11 points per game scoring. Norton averages 11.9 points while shooting 32% from three and dishing out 31 assists. Nicole Gloor and Amy Briggs each average 11.3 points with Gloor shooting 56% from the field Briggs shooting 42% from three and a team-leading 34 assists.

Truman is second in the Great Lakes Valley Conference in scoring at 84.1 points per game, fourth in scoring defense at 61.4 per game and third in victory margin at +22.8. The Bulldogs are third in the league in offensive rebounds per game at 14.9 with Bianca Szafarowicz leading the way with 22 and an overall rebounding average of six per night.

The Bulldogs are shooting 43% from the floor with 37% from beyond the arc and 76% from the foul line. Opponents are shooting 38% overall, 32% from three and 74% from the stripe. The Bulldogs have forced 52 more turnovers this season and average 18.8 opponent turnovers per game.

Triple Threat
The Bulldogs led all three NCAA Divisions in three-point shooting last season. Truman set a season record with202 treys and shot 41.6% from the arc last year to lead Duke (40.5%), Penn State (39.2%) and Northwest-St. Paul (39.2%) in three-point shooting.

Truman's previous record in three-point shooting was 39% in 1989-90 and 199 triples during the 2007-08 season.

This season, Truman is shooting 37.0% from outside through the first seven games while the national Division II average is 31.2%.

Career Milestones
Allie Norton is fifth on the Truman career three-pointers made list with 146. She is three away from fourth place held by Susan Theroff's and six away from Angie Gum's third position. Norton is the career leader in three-point field goal percentage with a minimum of 50 made with a 41.4% rate. The next closest Bulldog is Nicci Hays, who made 40.7% of her three-pointers.

Norton is sixth in three-point attempts with 353.

Nicole Gloor is the active leading scorer on the Bulldogs with 798 points. She is eight all-time in free throws attempted with 327, two back of Shelley Picha's seventh place and ninth all-time in free throws made with 236, six behind Wendi Sobaski and Candace McGee's seventh ranking. Gloor's current field goal percentage of 46.0% is tied for 10th all-time among Bulldog players. She is tied with Angie Griffin.

Early Season Trends:
Though early in the season, Truman's 84.1 points per game is the highest scoring mark in school history. The Bulldogs have averaged over 80 points for a season three other times, 1998-99 (81.0), 1990-91 (81.9) and 1989-90 (84.4). Last season, Truman averaged 68.5 points per game.

The bench is averaging 33.2 points per game while Truman is also averaging 22.5 points per game off of turnovers and 18.2 points per game in second chance points.

Allie Norton has the team's single-game point high of 25 against Stephens (Mo.). Amy Briggs has a pair of 21 point games and Kasey Gassensmith also has a 20-point performance (22 vs. Stephens).

In the last three games, Truman has converted on 68-of-85 free throw attempts (80%).

The Bulldogs are 3-0 in Kirksville this season and have won the past 19 games played in Pershing Arena which are tied with Gannon (Pa.) for the fourth longest streak in Division II women's basketball. Colorado Mesa has the longest home court winning streak at 26 games followed by Western Washington (22), Minnesota State (20).

Season Highlights:

Senior Bianca Szfarowicz recorded the first of two double-doubles of the season in Truman's 101-27 victory over Stephens (Mo.) on November 11. Szafarowicz had a career-high 18 points to go along with 10 rebounds. She also tied for the sixth best steal performance against the Stars with seven and added a career high four assists. Szafarowic's second double-double came with 15 points and 11 boards against Grand Valley State on November 22.
Sophomore Kasey Gassensmith had the fourth best single-game shooting percentage against Stephens College on November 11. Gassensmith was 9-of-11 (81.8%) from the field for a career-high 22 points against the Stars. It was the highest field goal percentage with a minimum of eight made since Nicole Gloor went 9-of-11 against Southwest Baptist in 2010.
The 74-point win over Stephens was the most by the team since an 82-point win (102-20) over Central Christian (Mo.) in 2007. The team had the second most field goal attempts all-time with 88, tied eighth most three-pointers made with 12, third most rebounds in a game with 62, eighth most assists with 26 and seventh most steals with 17.
Truman's 91-71 win over Northwest Missouri on November 16 broke a 10-year, 10-game losing streak in Bearcat Arena. The Bulldogs last win in Maryville was a 74-72 victory on February 5, 2003 and it was the largest margin of victory over Northwest on their home court since an 89-66 win on January 16, 1999.
The Bulldogs won their 24th consecutive game over Lincoln (Mo.) when they defeated the Blue Tigers 83-60 on November 17. Truman owns a 47-14 all-time series lead over Lincoln and have not lost to the Blue Tigers since 1998.
Truman split a pair of games at the Trevecca Nazarene (Tenn.) tournament. The Bulldogs fell 81-68 to Grand Valley (Mich.) State in the opener but bounced host Trevecca Nazarene 82-70 the next day.
The team won their 18th straight home game with a 82-54 win over Hannibal-LaGrange (Mo.) on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. The Bulldogs were 18-of-19 from the foul line, good for a 94.7% which was the seventh best single-game free throw percentage all-time.
Truman rallied from 16 points down to take a one-point lead late against the Quincy Lady Hawks but QU scored six of the final seven points to pull out the 79-75 win. Four Bulldogs scored in double-figures led by Nicole Gloor's 16 points.

New Kids On The Block:
The Bulldogs enter their first year of GLVC play after spending the past 31 seasons in the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association. Truman was 161-351 (.314) in the MIAA but had posted a 33-27 record the past two years.

Truman is the newest school of the 16-team league that is celebrating its 35th anniversary as a conference. Former member Northern Kentucky has won the most GLVC championships with eight followed by current members, Lewis (Ill.) Southern Indiana and Saint Joseph's with five apiece.

The Flyers of Lewis defeated the West Division champions, Maryville (Mo.) to capture last season's GLVC title 76-61.

GLVC Preseason Poll:
Truman was picked fourth in the West Division of the GLVC Preseason Coaches' Poll with 73 points and one first-place vote.

Quincy (Ill.) garnered 11 first-place votes and 112 overall to sit atop the division in the poll followed by Maryville (Mo.) and Missouri S&T. Lewis (Ill.) grabbed 11 first-place votes to lead the East Division followed by the University of Indianapolis.

The Bulldogs opened GLVC play on December 7 with a loss at Quincy (Ill.) and will play 18 league games. They will play home-and-home games with Quincy, Missouri-St. Louis and Maryville while single-games against everyone else in the league.

Pittsburg State Gorillas (6-3; 1-0 MIAA)
The Gorillas have won five of their last six and both games played at home this season and are led by junior guards Lizzy Jeronimus and Morgan Westhoff. Jeronimus is fifth in the MIAA in scoring at 17.4 points per game while also leading the team in rebounding at 7.4 and assists at 2.3 per game. Westhoff leads the MIAA in three-point field goal percentage at 47.9% and scored a team-high 28 points in a victory over Henderson (Ark.) State.

Pittsburg State was 17-10 last year and 11-7 in the MIAA ending the season on a three-game losing streak. The year before, the Gorillas won 27 games and advanced to the NCAA Division II Elite Eight.

Lane Lord is in his seventh season as head coach of Pittsburg State.

Up Next:
Truman will not take to the court again until the 2014 calendar year when they will play their final 17 games exclusively against Great Lakes Valley Conference opponents. The Bulldogs will open up the year with a two-game road trip at defending league champion Lewis (Ill.) on January 3rd and a Sunday matinee against Wisconsin-Parkside on January 5th.

The three games in the month of December is the fewest since the 1982-83 season.

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