Women's Basketball 11/18/2014 3:54:00 PM

WBB Notes: Truman Heads To Music City USA

Truman Women's Basketball Game Notes
Friday, November 21, 2014 ~ vs. Trevecca Nazarene ~ Nashville, Tenn. 5:30 p.m.
Saturday, November 22, 2014 ~ vs. Kentucky Wesleyan ~ Nashville, Tenn. 12:00 p.m.
Game Notes (PDF)	Tickets	Live Stats (Fan)
Live Audio	Live Video	Live Stats (Media)
GLVC Stats	GLVC Standings	NCAA Stats

Game Coverage: Friday's game can be heard on 99.9 FM KIRK and Saturday's game on 104.7 FM KRES. They will be available online at CentralMoInfo.com and TrumanBulldogs.com by clicking on the appropriate station's link. For smartphone users, download the app TuneIn Radio and find both KIRK and KRES to listen to the games on your mobile devices. Brad Boyer will provide the play-by-play coverage of each game starting with a pre-game show 15 minutes prior to tip-off.

KIRKSVILLE, Mo. – The Truman Women's Basketball team heads to Nashville, Tennessee for the second straight year. They will compete in the Pops Duncan Classic, playing host Trevecca Nazarene (Tenn.) on Friday and Kentucky Wesleyan on Saturday.

Game Preview:
The Bulldogs took care of business in their season-opening 103-62 win over Hannibal-LaGrange last Friday night. Truman showed the same traits from last year's squad in the victory by shooting over 56% from the field, 50% from three making 10 triples and going 21-of-29 from the foul line. Truman also won the battle of the boards 41-32 and had 16 assists to 11 turnovers.
Five players scored in double-figures, with the 13 players playing all on the floor for more than 10 minutes but less than 25. Redshirt freshman McKenzie Russell led the team with 15 points on 7-of-8 shooting coming off the bench while three starters scored in double-figures, Michalina Tomczak (13), Courtney Strait (13) and Allie Norton (11).
Truman will face both teams that were in the Great Midwest Athletic Conference (GMAC) title game last season.
Trevecca Nazarene won their season opener 61-39 on Monday night over Alabama-Huntsville. Kaci Britt Bell led all scorers with 20 points and pulled down 10 rebounds. The Trojans were 19-9 last season and 14-2 in the GMAC but fell 80-76 to conference champion Kentucky Wesleyan.
TNU was the preseason favorite to win the GMAC this season with Bell the returning leading scorer at 11.0 points per game. The Trojans are under the direction of Gary Van Atta, in his 10^th season on the Nashville campus.
The Panthers opened their season with a home loss to Asbury (Ky.) 70-68 and will play their former Great Lakes Valley Conference neighbor Southern Indiana on Tuesday night and Ferris (Mich.) State in the opening game of the Pops Duncan Classic. KWC was 21-8 a season ago and the first champions of the GMAC but did not earn an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament.
KWC was picked third in the GMAC preseason poll and are led by returning leading scorer senior forward Jordanne Gambill, who averaged 12.8 points per game and averaged 80% from the foul line. The Panthers have co-head coaches in Caleb and Nicole Nieman. The couple has guided the Panthers to their first two NCAA appearances (2011 and 2013) and first back-to-back 20-win seasons in school history (2013 and 2014).
Series History:
Truman defeated Trevecca Nazarene 82-70 in the Pops Duncan Classic last season in the only other meeting between the two schools. The Trojans led by five just after half but Truman scored 12 straight to pull away for the win. Guards Amy Briggs and Allie Norton combine for 37 points and the Bulldogs made 31-of-38 from the free throw line.
It will be the first meeting between the Bulldogs and Kentucky Wesleyan on the hardwood but the two schools share history. It was the Panthers were an original member of the Great Lakes Valley Conference and when they announced they would be leaving for the GMAC, Truman was invited to take that spot in the league.
Head Coach Amy Eagan:
All-American and Bulldog Athletics Hall of Fame member Amy Eagan is in her second season on the bench for Truman and her seventh season as a head coach. She is 99-89 in those seven seasons after a 22-9 campaign returning to her alma mater. The Bulldogs returned to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since the 1999 season and won the GLVC Tournament Championship.
Tip Ins:

Allie Norton is 56 points away from joining the 1,000 point club at Truman. She had 944 points in 86 games played for the Bulldogs. She has made a three-pointer in 78 of 86 games played and her most consecutive games with a three-pointer is 21. Last season, she had 15 games straight in which she connected from downtown. There have been 18 previous players to score 1,000 career points for the Bulldogs with Nicole Gloor being the last in 2014.
The Bulldogs are 59-27 (.686) over the past four seasons, 35-21 (.625) in league games and 34-6 (.850) in games played in Pershing Arena during that span. In non-conference games, Truman is 25-6 (.806) and 13-0 at home since the 2011-12 season.
Truman finished fifth in the final Division II national rankings in free throw percentage last season (77.9%) and was fourth nationally in three-point field goal percentage (39.0%) and turnovers per game (12.2/g).
Top individual national rankings were 12^th for Allie Norton in Three-Point field goal percentage (43.6%) and Courtney Strait 13^th in free-throw percentage at 89.5%.
Truman averaged 7.6 three-pointers per game with a season-high 15 against Illinois-Springfield and a low of three against Grandview (Iowa). They have made over 10 threes in a game seven times last year.
Off the court, Truman had three players, Michalina Tomczak, Nicole Gloor and Tawny Tucci, earn Academic All-GLVC.

GLVC Preseason Coaches' Poll: The Truman Women's Basketball team was picked fourth in the Great Lakes Valley Conference West Division in the preseason coaches' poll and picked up two of the available 16 first-place votes.

Drury (Mo.) University nabbed 12 first-place votes in the West and earned 115 points to sit atop the division while Lewis (Ill.) University garnered 13 first-place votes and 118 overall to sit atop the East.

Up Next: The Bulldogs will put that undefeated non-conference home streak on the line when they welcome nationally-ranked Pittsburg (Kan.) State University for a pre-Thanksgiving Day special.
The Gorillas were 24^th in the preseason WBCA Coaches Poll after and 23-8 overall record.
Game time is scheduled for 5:00 p.m. on Wednesday, November 26.

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Players Mentioned

#02 Amy Briggs: G; 5' 6"; Senior

#32 Nicole Gloor: F; 5' 10"; Senior

#12 Allie Norton: G; 5' 6"; Senior

#23 Courtney Strait: G; 5' 10"; Junior

#44 Michalina Tomczak: C; 6' 3"; Redshirt Junior

#10 Tawny Tucci: G; 5' 6"; Junior

#03 McKenzie Russell: G; 5' 8"; Redshirt Freshman

Players Mentioned

#02 Amy Briggs
: 5' 6"; Senior
: G

#32 Nicole Gloor
: 5' 10"; Senior
: F

#12 Allie Norton
: 5' 6"; Senior
: G

#23 Courtney Strait
: 5' 10"; Junior
: G

#44 Michalina Tomczak
: 6' 3"; Redshirt Junior
: C

#10 Tawny Tucci
: 5' 6"; Junior
: G

#03 McKenzie Russell
: 5' 8"; Redshirt Freshman
: G