Notes: Seedings Up For Grabs When Truman Hosts Quincy Thursday

2013-14 Truman Women's Basketball Game Notes:
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KIRKSVILLE, Mo. – The final regular season game is on tap for Thursday night as Truman welcomes rival Quincy (Ill.) University for Senior Night at Pershing Arena. Tip off, with senior festivities beginning prior to game time is scheduled for 5:30 p.m.

Game Coverage
Thursday will be on the 99.9 FM KIRK and available free online through CentralMOInfo.com. Brad Boyer and Kevin White 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

About the Bulldogs (17-8; 11-6 GLVC)
Truman enters the final game of the regular season in a precarious situation. The Bulldogs were eighth in the first NCAA regional poll, released last Wednesday, but lost both games last week. They ran into a hot shooting Maryville team that made a school-record 18 three-pointer against the 'Dogs in a 90-84 loss last Thursday and fell on the road 80-76 to Missouri-St. Louis on Saturday night with two starters leaving the game early with injuries.

The Bulldogs have dropped three of the last five games with the other two needing overtime before Truman prevailing. They have secured at least a home game for the first-round of the Deaconess Great Lakes Valley Conference postseason tournament. Truman could end up in a tie for fourth place if Missouri-St. Louis and Indianapolis both lose on Thursday night or finish eighth if Truman, Southern Indiana falls and Maryville wins.
The GLVC will release the bracket on Thursday night following games after applying their tie-breaking criteria to the standings.

Truman is third in the nation and first in the GLVC in three-point shooting at 40.4% and fifth in the country and first in the conference in free throw percentage at 78.5%. They are second in the conference in scoring offense at 81.0 points per game and for the first time in school history, feature five players averaging 10 points or more per game in both overall and league games.

Allie Norton leads the group at 13.4 and 14.1 respectively followed by Amy Briggs (12.8/13.7), Nicole Gloor (12.1/12.4), Bianca Szafarowicz (12.1/12.2) and Courtney Strait (11.0/12.3). The team shoots 43% from the field with opponents shooting 42% overall, 36% from three and 73% from the line.

Truman vs. Quincy (Thursday 5:30 p.m. – Kirksville, Mo.)
Series History: The Lady Hawks lead the overall series 23-18 and broke a Truman two-game winning streak with a 79-75 win back on December 7 in Quincy. Truman took a 74-73 lead with 3:14 left after falling behind 16 points earlier. The Lady Hawks six of the final seven points to win. Hannah Weedman led the Lady Hawks with 24 points while Truman got 16 from Nicole Gloor.

Quincy Last Time Out: Quincy had their 12-game winning streak snapped with a pair of losses, both at home, last week. They shot just 37% from the field in a 79-62 loss to Missouri-St. Louis last Thursday then ran into the red-hot Maryville squad that held on for a 73-71 win.

About the Lady Hawks: Quincy was ranked #16 in this week's WBCA/USA Today Coaches Poll after peaking at number 10 last week…they were number two in the NCAA Regional poll before the losses…they are 21-4 overall and 14-3 in the GLVC…they can finish no worse than third in the overall conference standings and will have a bye into the quarterfinals of the Deaconess GLVC postseason tournament…they are second to the Bulldogs in three-point percentage at 37.6% and third in free throw shooting (77.0%) and overall field goal percentage (46.1%)…average 79.0 points overall and allow 66.3 points overall…Lucy Cramsey is 16^th in the GLVC in scoring at 13.6 per game and averages 14.2 in league games….Cramsey is team's leading rebounder at 7.3 per night…Hannah Weedman leads the team with a 56.1% field goal percentage while Carly Bettencourt shoots 45% from behind the arc…Jeni Garber is in her third season on the bench at Quincy after previously serving as an assistant coach at Bradley (Ill.).

Bulldog Notebook:

First NCAA Rankings Released:
Truman was ranked eighth out of 10 teams in the first set of NCAA Midwest Regional rankings last Wednesday. However it was not a good week for ranked teams. Including the Bulldogs, two other schools in the top eight dropped both games last week and two other schools went 1-1.

Number one Drury (Mo.), number five Lewis (Ill.) and number seven Northern Michigan were 2-0 last week as well as number nine Missouri-St. Louis and number 10 Southern Indiana. Number two Quincy, number three Wayne (Mich.) State and Truman were 0-2, while number three Indianapolis and number six Michigan Tech split their games.

Last Five Games:
Truman is 2-3 with two overtime wins in their last five games. During that span, Truman has averaged 84.6 points per game but have allowed 84.8. Opponents have been shooting 51% from the field including 48% from three going 45-of-93.

Courtney Strait has led the 'Dogs, averaging 17.4 in the last five games while Strait, Amy Briggs and Bianca Szafarowicz have all shot about 50% from the field.

Winning Season:
The program has clinched their third straight winning season with a 17-8 record with one regular season game remaining. It is the third straight year that women's basketball will finish above .500. It is only the second time in program history that the team has had three straight winning seasons as the team strung together five from 1977-1982. Truman is one conference win away from tying a program high in that regard which was accomplished last season and again in 1999-2000.

The Bulldogs are 66-41 (.631) over the past four seasons, 44-32 (.597) in league games and 38-12 (.775) in games played in Pershing Arena during that span.

Season of Records:

The Bulldogs have broken last season's record for three-pointers in a year with 203. The previous record was 202 set in 28 games in 2012-13. Truman has 405 three-pointers over the past two seasons.
The 503 three-point attempts are sixth single-season. The record is 607 set in 2007-08.
Truman has made 541 free throws, good for second single-season. The record is 567 (in 31 games) set during the 1998-99 season.
The record for free throw attempts is 787, also in 1998-99 while this year's team has the second most at 689 in just 25 games played.
The .785 free throw percentage is currently the best single-season mark. Second is a .779 percentage set in 2009-10.
Truman's 81.0 scoring average is tied for third best in school history behind the 1989-90 84.4 mark and the 1990-91 average of 81.9.
Allie Norton's 88.9% and Courtney Strait's 88.8% is seventh and eighth respectively in free throw percentage with a minimum of 30 made in a season.
Amy Briggs' 63 three-pointers is ninth best in a single-season. She is 13 away from Susan Theroff's 1990-91 record of 76.
Briggs' 45.3% from beyond the arc is just ahead of Allie Norton's school record of 45.2% set last season.
Bianca Szafarowicz and Nicole Gloor are in the top 10 in free throws made. Szafarowicz is eighth with 115 while Gloor is ninth at 114.

Other Season Notables:
Truman set a school record with eight straight wins, all in conference, and most recently had a school-long 23-game winning streak, which was the fourth longest active streak in Division II.

The team has two games ranked in the top 10 in field goals attempted, (88 vs. Stephens; 75 vs. Grand Valley St.) three in three-pointers made (15 vs. Illinois Springfield; 13 vs. McKendree and 12 vs. Stephens) and eight of the top 10 in free throws made.

Courtney Strait, Allie Norton and Nicole Gloor added their names to the single-game record book in free throw percentage. Strait was 13-of-13 against Bellarmine (Ky.) last Saturday while Norton was 10-of-10 against Rockhurst and Gloor was 8-of-8 against Illinois Springfield to tie the school record.

Strait's 13 made free throws against Bellarmine were the sixth most made in a single-game. Strait made her first free throws of the game in the final seconds of regulation against the Knights and made 11 more free throws in the two overtime periods.

Norton has other single-game top 10 mentions this season in three-pointers made (6 vs. Drury) and Gloor in free throws made and attempted (12-16 vs. Pittsburg State).

Kasey Gassensmith and Bianca Szafarowicz both have top 10 games in field goal percentage with a minimum of eight made. Gassensmith went 9-of-11 against Stephens (Mo.) College while Szafarowicz finished 8-of-10 against Southern Indiana. Szafarowicz had seven steals against Stephen's, which was good for a sixth place on the single-game list.

National Rankings:
Truman is third in the nation in three-point shooting percentage at 40.4%. They trail West Texas A&M (41.5%) and Philadelphia (Pa.) (40.5%) for the top spot.

The Bulldogs are fifth in free throw shooting at 78.5% while St. Cloud (Minn.) State leads Division II with an outstanding 84.2%.

Truman is 11th in turnovers per game (13.1), 1th in three-pointers per game (8.1), 12th in scoring offense (81.0/g) and 19th in assist/turnover ratio at 1.13.

Amy Briggs has the top individual national ranking for the Bulldogs at fifth in three-point shooting at 45.3%. Catherine Noack of Bloomsburg (Pa.) leads Division II at 47.8% from outside. Allie Norton is 11th at 44.6%. Both are 1-2 in the GLVC rankings.

Norton and Courtney Strait are 15th and 19th respectively in free throw shooting. Four Bulldogs are ranked in the top 200.

The GLVC boasts to top overall shooting conference in Division II with the 16 teams averaging 43.0% from the field and 34.3% from behind the arc. The league is second in overall free throw percentage at 73.5%. The national averages are 40.1% field goal, 31.4% three-points and 70.0% from the line.

Career Milestones:
Nicole Gloor is Truman's active leading scorer with 1,010 points. She became the 18th player in Truman history to hit that 1,000 point mark. She is sixth on Truman's career lists in free throws made (310) and fifth in attempts (423). She is also the active leader in steals with 120 and blocks with 29.

Allie Norton has 232 assists for her career and has started and played in all 80 games. Norton is first in career three-point percentage (43.3%), third in three-pointers made (192) and third in attempts (443). Norton is second in free throw percentage at 87.2%

Bianca Szafarowicz is the active career leading in rebounds with 466 and in games played at 102. Szafarowicz's 47.1% career field goal percentage is seventh all-time with a minimum of 200 made.

Amy Briggs is seventh in three-pointers made at 116 in her two seasons as a Bulldog. She is eighth in attempts with 277, second in percentage at 41.9% and fifth in assists average with 3.4 per game.

Courtney Strait has the top career free throw percentage with a minimum of 100 made. Strait is 104-of-116 (89.7%). She is tied for third in three-point percentage at 40.7% with 68 treys on 167 attempts.

Trending:

Nearly 75% of Truman's scoring comes from five players. Kasey Gassensmith (6.0), Michalina Tomczak (5.2) and Megan Walsh (5.2) are the next three scorers for the Bulldogs this season.
Tomczak, Briggs and Norton have started each game this season with Szafarowicz starting 24 and Gloor 17. Gassensmith is the only other Bulldog to appear in all 25 games so far.
The largest deficit overcome this season by the Bulldogs is 12 points against Bellarmine and has overcome two 10-point deficits to Wisconsin-Parkside and William Jewell. The largest lead lost was eight to Missouri-St. Louis.
Szafarowicz has five of the Bulldogs' six double-doubles this season.
The Bulldogs have trailed at the half in 12 games and have come back to win four of them.
Truman averages 8.1 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.
The Bulldogs are 49-10 (.842) in games decided by 10 points or more over the past four seasons and 15-2 this year.

Up Next:
Truman will know who, when and where they will be playing following Thursday night's game when the GLVC releases the tournament bracket. If the Bulldogs are at home on Sunday, the game will begin at 1:00 p.m.

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