Notes: Bulldogs Look To Knock Off Defending Champs

2013-14 Truman Women's Basketball Game Notes:
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KIRKSVILLE, Mo. – The Truman women will square off with the defending Deaconess GLVC Tournament Champions when they face Lewis (Ill.) University at 6:00 p.m. on Thursday night at the Ford Center in Evansville, Ind.

Game Coverage
Tournament games will be on the 104.7FM 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 at the end of the broadcast.

Live stats and pay-per-view live video, is provided through the conference and will be available on the women's basketball schedule page on TrumanBulldogs.com

About the Bulldogs (19-8; 12-6 GLVC)
Truman advanced to the quarterfinal round after dispatching No. 10 William Jewell (Mo.) College on Sunday afternoon 70-58. With the Bulldogs up just two with nearly 10 minutes to play, Amy Briggs caught fire by scoring 17 points over a seven minute span to pull away from the Cardinals and advance to face the Lewis Flyers on Thursday.

Briggs' 22 points was the third straight time the senior had tallied over 20 in a game and seventh time this season. She took hold of the team lead in scoring at 13.7 points per game while shooting 45% from three with 102 assists.

For the first time in school history, an unprecedented five Bulldogs average over 10 points per game this season. Joining Briggs is Allie Norton at 13.1, seniors Bianca Szafarowicz at 11.9 and Nicole Gloor at 11.6 and sophomore Courtney Strait at 10.9. Truman is averaging 80.2 points per game, just the fourth time a Bulldog team has averaged over 80 in a season, set single-season highs in three-pointers made with 215, free throws made with 567 and have the best free throw shooting percentage at 78.4%.

This is the 13th overall conference tournament appearance for the Bulldogs as they are the seventh seed, tying for sixth but losing a tie-break with the University of Southern Indiana. Despite the Bulldogs regular season home win over the Screaming Eagles, they were broke the tie by virtue of their road win at the University of Indianapolis while Truman lost at UIndy.

Truman entered the week third in the nation and first in the GLVC in three-point shooting at 40.2% and fifth in the country and first in the conference in free throw percentage.

Truman vs. Lewis (Thursday, 6:00 p.m. – Evansville, Ind.)
Series History: Only the second meeting between the two schools with the first coming on January 3rd in Romeoville, Ill. The Flyers defeated the Bulldogs 98-72, which was the most points allowed by the Bulldogs this season. Mariyah Henley scored 26 points and Jess Reinhart added 23 for the Flyers, who outscored the Bulldogs 44-22 in the pain. Following the game, Truman won a school-record eight-straight games.

Lewis Last Time Out: The Flyers earned a first round bye by capturing the GLVC East Division with a 22-4 overall record and a 15-2 league mark. They finished the season sweeping the three games in their pod winning in overtime against Illinois Springfield 82-77, against McKendree (Ill.) 75-63 and against Wisconsin Parkside 69-56. Mariyah Henley scored 29 points and had 12 rebounds in the victory over the Rangers last Thursday.

About the Flyers: GLVC Player of the Year, Mariyah Brawner-Henley was the only player to average a double-double this season in the league. Brawner-Henley averaged 18.7 points and 12.4 rebounds, leading the league in both categories…Mariyah-Brawner was joined on the GLVC first team by Jamie Johnson and Jess Reinhart with Johnson also earning a spot on the All-Defensive team…Flyers are third in overall stats in scoring at 78.9 points per game, second in three-point defense (29.8%), fourth in rebounding margin (+5.2) and are first in assists per game (17.2/g) and second in blocks (5.1/g)…Lewis shoots 43.8% from the field, 29.5% from three and 74.4% from the line…they are last in the GLVC in three-pointers per game at 4.5…the Flyers are the defending tournament champions, winning 76-61 over Maryville (Mo.) last season…Lisa Carlsen is in her seventh season as head coach of the Flyers and have made the NCAA tournament two of the past three seasons (2013, 2011).

Bulldog Notebook:

Second NCAA Rankings Released:
NCAA released their second regional rankings of the season last Wednesday and the Bulldogs fell out of the top 10. Drury (Mo.) maintained the top spot in the region with Lewis (Ill.) moving up to second followed by Quincy (Ill.), Indianapolis, Wayne (Mich.) St., Northern Michigan, Missouri-St. Louis, Michigan Tech, Southern Indiana an Ashland (Ohio) rounding out the group.

Quincy and Michigan Tech suffered losses since the rankings were released with the Lady Hawks falling to the Bulldogs for the third straight time.

The top six at-large teams and two automatic qualifiers from the GLVC and the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletics Conference (GLIAC) from the region will be selected on Sunday evening for the NCAA Division II Championship Tournament that will begin on March 15.

Conference Tournament History:
The Bulldogs improved to 2-1 in conference postseason tournament home games with their win over William Jewell on Sunday.
Truman has never been to a conference tournament championship game, advancing to the semifinals rounds on two occasions, in 1999 and against in 2008.
The Bulldogs have won two MAIAW State Championships in 1979 and 1982 and finished second in 1980 and 1981.

Winning Season:
The program has clinched their third straight winning season with an 19-8 record. 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 tied for most conference wins with 12 that was last was accomplished last season and again in 1999-2000.

The Bulldogs are 68-41 (.631) over the past four seasons, 45-32 (.597) in league games and 40-12 (.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 215. The previous record was 202 set in 28 games in 2012-13. Truman has 417 three-pointers over the past two seasons.
The 535 three-point attempts are fourth single-season. The record is 607 set in 2007-08.
Truman has made 567 free throws, tied for the school-record set during the 1998-99 season (in 31 games).
The record for free throw attempts is 787, also in 1998-99 while this year's team has the second most at 723 in 27 games played.
The .784 free throw percentage is currently the best single-season mark. Second is a .779 percentage set in 2009-10.
Truman's 80.2 scoring average is third best in school history behind the 1989-90 84.4 mark and the 1990-91 average of 81.9.
Allie Norton's and Courtney Strait's 88.9% is tied for seventh in free throw percentage with a minimum of 30 made in a season.
Amy Briggs' 70 three-pointers is seventh best in a single-season. She is six away from Susan Theroff's 1990-91 record of 76.
Briggs' 45.2% from beyond the arc is tied with Allie Norton's school record of set last season.
Bianca Szafarowicz and Nicole Gloor are in the top 10 in free throws made. Szafarowicz is eighth with 119 while Gloor is ninth at 117.

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 second in the nation in three-point shooting percentage at 40.2%. They trail West Texas A&M (41.5%) and for the top spot.

The Bulldogs are fifth in free throw shooting at 78.4% while St. Cloud (Minn.) State leads Division II with an outstanding 83.9%.

Truman is ninth in turnovers per game (12.6), 14th in three-pointers per game (8.0), 13th in scoring offense (80.2/g) and 15th in assist/turnover ratio at 1.16.

Amy Briggs has the top individual national ranking for the Bulldogs at seventh in three-point shooting at 45.2%. Catherine Noack of Bloomsburg (Pa.) leads Division II at 48.4% from outside. Allie Norton is 14th at 44.1%. Both are 1-2 in the GLVC-only rankings.

Courtney Strait is 12th 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 1,022 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 (313) and fifth in attempts (426). She is also the active leader in steals with 121 and blocks with 31.

Allie Norton has 234 assists for her career and has started and played in 81 of the possible 82 games during her career. Norton is first in career three-point percentage (43.2%), third in three-pointers made (193) and third in attempts (447). Norton is second in free throw percentage at 87.2%

Bianca Szafarowicz is the active career leading in rebounds with 483 and in games played at 104. Szafarowicz's 46.5% career field goal percentage is ninth all-time with a minimum of 200 made.

Amy Briggs is seventh in three-pointers made at 123 in her two seasons as a Bulldog. She is eighth in attempts with 293, second in percentage at 42.0% and sixth 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 109-of-121 (90.1%). She is fourth in three-point percentage at 40.3% with 71 treys on 176 attempts.

Trending:

Nearly 75% of Truman's scoring comes from five players. Kasey Gassensmith (5.9), Michalina Tomczak (5.5) and Megan Walsh (5.0) are the next three scorers for the Bulldogs this season.
Tomczak and Briggs have started each game this season with Szafarowicz starting 25 and Gloor 18. Gassensmith is the only other Bulldog to appear in all 25 games so far. Allie Norton missed her first game as a Bulldog against Quincy on Thursday, breaking a streak of 80 consecutive games but returned against William Jewell.
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 8.0 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 51-10 (.842) in games decided by 10 points or more over the past four seasons and 17-2 this year.

Up Next:
If advancing, the Bulldogs will play the winner of the session's nightcap game between No. 3 seed Quincy and No. 6 seed Southern Indiana on Saturday afternoon at 2:30 p.m. The Bulldogs are 1-1 against the Lady Hawks, losing in December 79-75 but winning last Thursday 70-59. Truman defeated Southern Indiana on February 6 in Kirksville 74-57.

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