Game Notes: Women Look To Defend Home Court Streak

2013-14 Truman Women's Basketball Game Notes:
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KIRKSVILLE, Mo. – For the first time in over a month, the Truman Women's Basketball team returns home to Pershing Arena and will host their first Great Lakes Valley Conference games. The Bulldogs will entertain the University of Illinois Springfield on Thursday night and McKendree (Ill.) on Saturday afternoon.

Game Coverage
Both games will be on the Bulldogs flagship station, 104.7 FM KRES and available free online through CentralMOInfo.com. Brad Boyer and Hank Janssen will call the action with a pregame show beginning 15 minutes prior to tip and will have Coach Amy Eagan's postgame comments during halftime of the men's game.

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

Truman vs. Illinois Springfield (Thursday 5:30 p.m. – Kirksville, Mo.)

Series History: Truman has won all six meetings against the Prairie Stars with the last being a 67-50 win on December 29, 2010. Five of the six games have been played in Kirksville with the first meeting coming on December 20, 1997, a 76-47 victory for the Bulldogs.

Of Note: Current Truman Coach Amy Eagan tied a Pershing Arena record with nine steals in the first meeting with the Prairie Stars. Eagan's Bulldogs won 76-47 with the guard scoring 14 points and adding six assists.

Last Time Out: Truman defeated Wisconsin-Parkside 74-68 with Bianca Szafarowicz leading Truman with 17 points and 11 rebounds. Illinois Springfield lost at home 73-68 to Missouri-St. Louis. The Prairie Stars got 23 points from guard Megan Bergerud.

Common Opponents: No common opponents yet between Truman and Illinois Springfield. The Prairie Stars lost their season opener to Missouri Western 78-41.

About the Prairie Stars: Have lost their last two games, 74-67 to Maryville and 73-68 to Missouri-St. Louis and are sitting at 4-6 this season…finished 3-15 in the GLVC West Division last season and 6-20 overall…competing in the GLVC East Division this season…Megan Bergerud was a second-team all-GLVC player last season…Bergerud leads team averaging 18.7 points and has scored over 20 in the last two games…Chad Oletzke is in his first season as head coach of the Prairie Stars and was previously a three-year assistant at South Dakota State University…UIS was picked eighth in the GLVC East Division in the preseason coaches' poll.

Truman vs. McKendree (Saturday 1:00 p.m. – Kirksville, Mo.)

Series History: Truman is 8-1 against the Bearcats all-time with non-conference victories against McKendree the past two seasons. Truman won 77-55 on Febuary 11, 2012 and 94-64 on November 17, 2012. Truman has won all five games played in Pershing Arena. McKendree's lone win came on Febuary 22, 1988, 71-64.

Last Time Out: McKendree lost 69-63 to Missouri-St. Louis on January 3rd but had their game against Maryville postponed due to the snow storm. They travel to Quincy (Ill.) University on Thursday night before playing in Kirksville on Saturday afternoon.

Common Opponents: No common opponents yet between Truman and McKendree. The Bearcats split a pair of games against MIAA members. They defeated Lincoln (Mo.) 54-41 but lost to Lindenwood (Mo.) 82-69 to start the season.

About the Bearcats: McKendree won five of six during November and December but lost at Kentucky Wesleyan 69-59 and at home against Missouri-St. Louis 69-63…Caty Ponce paces the Bearcats at 18.3 points per game and has scored over 20 in her last two outings entering this week…Finished 8-18and 3-15 in the GLVC last season…Ponce was named to the all-GLVC second-team last season…Melissa Ringhausen is in her 16th season as head coach of the Bearcats…McKendree was picked to finish sixth in the GLVC East Division in the preseason coaches' poll.

About the Bulldogs (7-4; 1-2 GLVC)
Truman broke a three-game losing streak when they defeated Wisconsin-Parkside 74-68 on Sunday following a 98-72 loss to Lewis (Ill.) on Thursday.

Senior Nicole Gloor leads Truman in scoring at 12.3 points per game and is joined in double-figures by senior Amy Briggs (11.5), junior Allie Norton (11.5) and senior Bianca Szafarowicz (11.0).

The Bulldogs are first in the GLVC and fourth in Division II in turnovers per game at 12.5. They are also second in the league and eighth overall in free throw percentage at 77.0%.

Truman is averaging 79.4 points per game on offense and 68.3 on defense for a +11.1 scoring margin. The Bulldogs shoot 40% from the field, 36% from three while also holding a +8.7 rebounding margin. Opponents are shooting 42% from the field, 31% from three and 75% from the foul line.

Free Throw Shooting:
In eight of the 11 games played, Truman has shot over 20 free throws and in five games shot over 30 free throws. Last year, Truman had 11 games over 20 and just one over 30.

Truman is shooting 77% from the line with the bench mark of the program for a season being 77.9% in 2009-10. That season, Truman had the third lowest free throw attempts with 412.

The record for free throws attempts and makes for a season came in the 1998-99 season with 787 attempts and 567 makes in 31 games. The Bulldogs are averaging 27.7 attempts per game this year and 21.3 makes.

Behind the Arc:
Junior Allie Norton is third in Division II and ninth among all Divisions active career three-point shooting percentage. Norton's career mark is 41.4% and she had made 152 three-pointers, tied for third in Bulldog history with Angie Gum.

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.

Truman makes 7.1 three-pointers per game while opponents make 3.5 per outing against the Bulldogs.

Career Milestones:
Allie Norton is tied for third on the Truman career three-pointers made list with 152 with Angie Gum (1987-91). She is sixth in attempts with 367, nine back of Susan Theroff's 376 total. 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.

Nicole Gloor is the active leading scorer on the Bulldogs with 842 points. She is seventh all-time in free throws attempted with 355, (next, Becka McHenry – 366) and seventh all-time in free throws made with 258, (next, Becka McHenry – 266).

Trending:

Truman is averaging 80.5 points per game. 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.
Truman has had three games this season rank in the top-10 single-game free throws made category. Truman made 31 (second all-time) against Trevecca Nzarene (Tenn.), 29 against Wisconsin-Parkside (fourth all-time) and 28 (T-5th) against Grand View (Iowa).
The bench is averaging 29.2 points per game while Truman is also averaging 18.9 points per game off of turnovers and 15.6 points per game in second chance points. Opponents are averaging 7.6 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).
The Bulldogs are 3-0 in Kirksville this season and have won the past 19 games played in Pershing Arena which are tied with Central Missouri for the fifth longest streak in Division II women's basketball. Colorado Mesa has the longest home court winning streak at 28 games followed by Minnesota State (23), Western Washington (22) and Gannon (21).
Senior Bianca Szafarowicz has three of the Bulldogs' four double-doubles this season. The last came on January 5 against Wisconsin-Parkside when she tallied 17 points and 11 rebounds.
Senior Nicole Gloor has 45 games in which she has scored over 10 points in a game, she had a streak of seven straight stopped the last time out against UW-Parkside.

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.

Up Next:
Truman wraps up the first round of GLVC "pod" play next weekend with a home game against Missouri-St. Louis on Thursday and a road tilt at Maryville (Mo.) on Saturday. Those two schools, along with Quincy (Ill.) are the four that will play home and home games against each other this season.

UMSL and Maryville are hosting Wisconsin-Parkside and Lewis (Ill.) this weekend.

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