Women's Basketball 12/3/2014 9:55:00 AM

WBB Notes: Bulldogs Opens GLVC Play Against Quincy Saturday

Truman Women's Basketball Game Notes
Saturday, December 6 vs. Quincy (Ill.) ~ 1:00 p.m. Pershing Arena
Game Notes (PDF)	Tickets	Live Stats (Fan)
Live Audio	Live Video	Live Stats (Media)
GLVC Stats	GLVC Standings	NCAA Stats

Game Preview:
The top two three-point shooting teams in the Great Lakes Valley Conference will tangle on Saturday as the Bulldogs host the Lady Hawks to start league play. Quincy is the hottest shooting team in the league at 47% from the field and make 8.7 three-pointers per game while shooting 44% from beyond the arc. Truman is shooting 41% overall but is second behind the Lady Hawks in three-point percentage (39.8%) and hits 7.8 triples per game.

The Bulldogs are 4-2 thus far in 2014-15 with their two losses coming against two top-10 Division II teams. Last week, the team suffered their first two losses first at home against #10 Pittsburg (Kan.) State (102-45) and then at #8 West Texas A&M (63-49). The Bulldogs righted the ship with an 80-75 win over Cameron (Okla.) in the final game of the Pak-A-Sak Tournament hosted by West Texas A&M.

Junior Courtney Strait and senior Allie Norton lead the Bulldogs with both averaging 14.0 points per game. Strait set new career highs with 12 rebounds and eight assists in Truman's victory against the Aggies on Saturday while Norton joined the Bulldog 1,000 point club with 18 points in 39 minutes in the same game.

Junior Michalina Tomczak (10.3 ppg) leads the team in rebounding at 6.5 per game and has been joined in the starting line-up in all six games by redshirt freshman Ashley Hartwig (4.5 ppg) and true freshman Rachel Steinhoff (4.7 ppg). Redshirt freshman McKenzie Russell has been the first player off the bench in all six games and is shooting 51% from the floor and 47% from beyond the arc while averaging 6.3 points per game.

Quincy broke a three-game skid with a 101-49 rout of Hannibal-LaGrange on Tuesday night at home. The Lady Hawks started the season with a 100-58 win over Avila (Kan.) and a 77-70 triumph over Missouri Western. Quincy dropped three straight road games to Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association members. They fell 56-49 to Missouri Southern, lost in overtime 73-65 to #21 Central Missouri and a 90-79 defeat at the hands of Lincoln (Mo.) University.

Carly Bettencourt has come off the bench in five of the six games played to lead the Lady Hawks in scoring at 11.3 points per night. Another benchmate, Anika Webster is second in scoring at 10.2 points. The four players that have started every game are Nikla Edom (9.7 ppg), Tori Kuhn (8.2 ppg), Kara Gerbus (7.7 ppg) and Maggie Cunningham (7.3 ppg).

Series History:
Quincy leads the all-time series with their neighbors to the west 23-20 but the Bulldogs have won four of the last five match-ups including two of three last season.

The Lady Hawks won 79-75 in the conference opener last year in Quincy's Pepsi Arena before the Bulldogs knocked off the Lady Hawks in consecutive weeks at the end of the season. Truman won 70-59 in the regular season finale in Pershing Arena then downed Quincy 68-54 in the GLVC Tournament semifinals.

Both Quincy and Truman made the NCAA Regional tournament last year with both being eliminated by Drury (Mo.) in the bracket. Truman lost 74-68 in overtime to the Lady Panthers while Quincy first defeated Northern Michigan 65-58 then lost to Drury 78-58 in the regional semifinals.

In the three games between the two teams last year, Truman seniors Amy Briggs (17.0 ppg) and Nicole Gloor (15.7 ppg) and Quincy seniors Lucy Cramsey (16.0 ppg) and Hannah Weedman (11.7 ppg) led their respective teams in scoring. Truman shot 43% from outside and held the Lady Hawks to a 33% three-point shooting percentage and the Bulldogs had 21 fewer turnovers (50-29) in the trio of games. Truman outscored Quincy 113-88 (+25) in the second half of the games played.

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 101-91 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. Eagan got her professional coaching start as an assistant coach for Quincy for four seasons.
During her time with the Lady Hawks, Quincy went 96-32 and made three straight trips to the NCAA Division II National Tournament. The Lady Hawks won back-to-back GLVC regular season and tournament titles in 2003-04 and 2004-05, with the 2003-04 squad winning a school record 29 games and advancing the NCAA-II Elite Eight.

Norton Moving Up Charts:
Allie Norton became the 19^th Truman player to join the 1,000 point club last week (1,017) and is third in career three-point shooting at Truman with 219 made. She is 11 back from second all-time (Candace McGee). Norton moved up the career assists charts last week and sits ninth all-time with 255. She will tie Breanna Daniels for fifth in games played on Saturday, which will be her 92^nd.
Norton is the career-active leader in Division II in three-point shooting at 43.3% and is second among all three NCAA Divisions. Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis from UConn t is the active three-point leader at 44.2%.
She is second in Division II, 12^th overall in three-pointers made and fifth (DII) 17^th overall in three-pointers made per game (2.41).

Tip Ins:

The Bulldogs are 62-29 (.681) over the past four seasons, 35-21 (.625) in league games and 34-7 (.829) in games played in Pershing Arena during that span.
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).
This season, Truman is second in Division II in personal fouls per game (12.8/game) and 12^th nationally in free throw shooting percentage (78.4%).
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. Quincy was picked second with 94 points and one first place vote.

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 sparse December schedule will continue following final exams. Truman will head to former MIAA opponent Missouri Southern on Monday, December 15 for a 5:30 p.m. game against the Lions before returning home to close out the calendar year with a Saturday, December 20^th game against Culver-Stockton (Mo.) College.

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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

#42 Ashley Hartwig: F; 5' 11"; Redshirt Freshman

#32 Rachel Steinhoff: G; 5' 7"; 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

#42 Ashley Hartwig
: 5' 11"; Redshirt Freshman
: F

#32 Rachel Steinhoff
: 5' 7"; Freshman
: G