Women's Basketball 3/2/2016 10:13:00 AM

Courtney Strait & Michalina Tomczak Earn All-GLVC Basketball Honors

INDIANAPOLIS – Truman Women's Basketball seniors Courtney Strait and Michalina Tomczak were recognized by the Great Lakes Valley Conference Coaches for their on-court performances this year.

Strait was a second-team all-GLVC selection and Tomczak garnered third-team all-GLVC. It is the first all-conference honor for either Bulldog.

Strait is Truman's leading scorer and rebounder at 10.6 points and 6.1 rebounds per game. She has scored in double figures in 17 games this year with a single-game high of 18 on three separate occasions. She has started and played in all 29 games this season and shoots 35% from the field, has 42 three-pointers and is 92-of-117 (78.6%) from the foul line.

Tomczak had 10 more blocked shots than the next closest GLVC player with 56 this season. It was the second most by a Bulldog all-time. She is second on the team in scoring at 9.2 points and has 16 double-figure scoring nights and two double-doubles. Her 19 points and 11 rebounds were Truman game-highs this season. She also had six blocks in that game with Upper Iowa.

Truman Women's Basketball Notes (GLVC Postseason Tournament)
Twitter: @TrumanAthletics || @TrumanStateWBB || #BewareofDog || @TrumanGameday

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Game #30: Truman (20-9) vs. Quincy (22-4)
When: Thursday, March 3, 2016 || 6:00 p.m.
Where: St. Charles, Mo. || Family Arena
Live Stats || Live Stats (Media) || Live Video (GLVCSN) || Live Audio (KRES)
2015-16 Stats: Truman || Quincy || GLVC || NCAA

KIRKSVILLE, Mo. – For the second time in three years, the Truman Bulldogs and #22 Quincy Lady Hawks will meet in a "winner take all" game in the Great Lakes Valley Conference Postseason Tournament. The two rivals will tip things off at 6 p.m. from the Family Arena in St. Charles, Mo.

It will be the eighth time in the last three years the two travel partners will meet, the most of any opponent against the Bulldogs during that span. In addition the Quincy/Truman match-up has been the only tournament game between travel partners over the last three years with this being the second time they have met.

Quincy earned the fourth seed and the week off following their 65-53 victory over the Bulldogs last Thursday night in QU's Pepsi Arena. Truman scored the first eight points of the game but Quincy then finished the half on a 30-10 run. The lead swelled to 17 points before the Bulldogs rallied with a 9-1 run. Courtney
Strait connected on consecutive threes to pull Truman to within four at 49-45 with 6:45 left but Maggie Cunningham scred the next five straight for Quincy to regain control and the victory.

Cunningham scored 23 points and was named the GLVC Women's Basketball Player of the Week for that contest. Strait finished with 17 and Kasey Gassensmith added 13 points.

In the first match-up in Kirksville, Rachel Steinhoff scored 17 points including the go-ahead basket with 1:06 left to end Quincy's eight-game winning streak 65-62. Cunningham and Anika Webster paced Quincy with 13 points apiece but the Lady Hawks struggled from three going 7-of-26 (26.9%).

The Bulldogs advanced to Thursday's game with a 59-51 win over #12-seed Missouri-St. Louis on Sunday afternoon at home. Strait finished with 15 points going over 1,100 for her career and Brooke Bailey went 3-for-3 from the field with a three-pointer to add 10. Truman was able to get to the foul line as they had a season-best free throw percentage at 83.3% with a 20-of-24 performance from the line.

Truman/Quincy Rivalry:
The Truman and Quincy campuses are separated by 80 miles and have a rich athletic tradition between the two schools despite not being in the same conference until 2013-14 season.

In women's basketball, the two programs have met 47 times since the Bulldogs inaugural season of 1972 with the Lady Hawks holding a 25-22 advantage in the series. There will be five players, two from Quincy and three from Truman that will be playing in their ninth game against one another, for Quincy, Maggie Cunningham and Kara Gerbus and for the Bulldogs Kasey Gassensmith, Michalina Tomczak and Courtney Strait.

Over those past four years, Truman has won two more overall games (78) than Quincy (76) but the Lady Hawks have won three more GLVC games (50) than Truman (47).

Rubber Games:
This will be the 20^th time that the Bulldogs will see an opponent for the third time during a season. The Bulldogs are 9-10 in the previous third match-ups between schools and have won the last four (vs. UMSL on Sunday 59-51, vs. Maryville in 2014 58-45, vs. Quincy in 2014 68-54 and vs. Southwest Baptist in 2013 65-56).

Truman has swept all three games in a season three times, gone 2-1 on four occasions, gone 1-2 on seven occasions and been swept in all three games five times.

Conference Tournament History:
This is the 14^th overall conference tournament that Truman has played in as either a member of the MIAA or GLVC. It will be the eighth time Truman has played in a conference tournament game at a neutral site since 2003, prior to that all tournament games were played at the highest remaining seed site. The Bulldogs are 4-6 in neutral site tournament games.

In their first GLVC Tournament in 2014, the Bulldogs defeated William Jewell at home as the number seven seed then knocked off Lewis (Ill.), Quincy (Ill.) and Maryville in Evansville, Indiana to claim the school's first GLVC Championship. Last year, Truman was the number six seed and were upset at home by the University of Indianapolis 72-51.

NCAA Regional Rankings:
The second set of NCAA Midwest Regional rankings were released last Wednesday and Truman was once again not in the top 10. It was the second of three rankings that will be out prior to the Division II Women's Basketball Tournament Selection Show on March 6.

The top 10 teams consisting of the GLVC, Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletics Conference (GLIAC) and the Great Midwest Athletic Conference (GMAC) will be ranked by defined selection criteria for postseason play. The conference tournament champions of all three leagues receive an automatic qualification to the 8-team regional tournament and five at-large bids will be up for grabs.

The Bulldogs last made the NCAA Tournament in 2014 as champions of the GLVC Postseason Tournament.

In Neutral Site Games:
Truman is 8-2 under Coach Amy Eagan in neutral site games and 6-2 in postseason games. This year, the Bulldogs were 2-2 in neutral floor games with wins over Northern Michigan (in Quincy) and Southern Wesleyan (in Hawaii) and losses to Grand Valley State (in Quincy) and Hawaii Pacific (in Hawaii).

Last 5 Games:
Truman is 3-2 in their last five outings with a +2.8 points scoring margin. The team has shot 35% overall and 36% from three but are averaging 14.2 turnovers per game. Opponents are shooting 35% from the field and 31% from three.

The most telling stat has been in the third quarter as Truman in their last five has outscored their opponents by 18 points. They have also been to the free throw line 113 times, making 74 while their opponents have been to the line 76 times, making 50 a +24 point spread from the foul line.

The other eye-popping stat has been the Bulldog bench. Over the course of the last 5 games, have shot 49% from the field (47-of-95) and outscored the opposing bench by a 122 to 62 (+60) point margin.

In Conference Games:
The Bulldogs 13 wins in conference this season set a new school record. The previous mark of 12 wins in league play was accomplished three times (2000,2013 and 2014).

The Bulldogs have reached 10 conference wins in each of the last five seasons and have had a winning record in conference games the past four years.

Block Party:
Truman has broken the single-season blocks record and now sit at 127 this season. The previous mark was 103 set in 2007-08. The team leads all of the GLVC in blocks per game with 4.39.

Michalina Tomczak has accounted for 56 of the 127 blocks this season which is good for second on the single-season block charts. She is 15 back of Georgia Mueller's 2006-07 total of 71 set in 2007-08. Cassidy Clark is second on the team with 24 blocks.

Tomczak is one of three Bulldogs all-time to block 100 shots. She is second overall with 116 blocks and joined Jennifer Perkins (107 from 1998-2002) and Georgia Mueller (195 from 2005-09) in that century club.

The Starting Five:
Amy Eagan has used Michalina Tomczak, Courtney Strait, Rachel Steinhoff, Kasey Gassensmith and Ashley Hartwig as her starting five for the majority of the season. Tomczak, Strait and Gassensmith have each started all 29 games, Steinhoff has started 28 and Hartwig has started 15.

Other Bulldogs with starts this season are Cassidy Clark with 10, Brooke Bailey and Sam Andrews with two and Tawny Tucci with one.

Career starts is led by Tomczak with 85 followed by Strait with 58 and sophomore Steinhoff with 55. Steinhoff did not start and missed her first collegiate game against Rockhurst on February 20.

Over 300 Games Played:
Courtney Strait is the Truman career leader in games played at Truman with 114 entering Thursday night. She passed teammate Allie Norton and Bulldog Hall of Famer Carol Jarrard (1978-82), who had the record at 112 games played.

Michalina Tomczak played in her 100^th game on Sunday against Missouri-St. Louis and Kasey Gassensmith will be making her 100^th appearance on Thursday night against Quincy.

Gettin It Done With D:
The Bulldogs will set a new defensive scoring mark. Truman enters the week allowing 55.0 points per game and would be only the second Truman team to have a defensive scoring average under 60 points. The school record is 57.1 points in 28 games played during the 2012-13 campaign.

Truman is eighth in the latest NCAA Division II rankings in scoring defense and leads the GLVC in that category. The Bulldogs have held opponents to under 50 points in 10 games this year. The program benchmark for most games holding an opponent under 50 goes back to the first year 1972-73 when they held the opposing teams to under 50 in 10 of the 15 games played. Truman has had 10 seasons in which they didn't hold anyone under 50 points in a game and another nine, including last year where it occurred just once in a season. In the post shot clock era, the record for holding opponents under 50 is five games set in 2012-13.

Strait Shooter:
Senior Courtney Strait is fourth among NCAA active free throw shooters. Strait's 86.4% from the line trails She is also among the Division II career leaders in points scored (93rd) and free throws made (42nd).

Strait became the 20^th Truman player to score 1,000 (1,116) career points when she scored 14 in Truman's win over Maryville. She is now 18^th on the scoring chart having passed teammate Nicole Gloor on Thursday in Quincy and went over the 1,100 point total. She is 12 points back of Angie Griffin (1977-82) for the 17^th spot on the list and 16 behind Candace McGee for 16^th position.

Upcoming Strait Milestones:
        Three-Pointers Made: 152 –tied 5th all-time (Next: 152 Angie Gum, 230 Candace McGee)
        Three-Pointers Attempted: 446 – fourth all-time (Next : 662 Allie Norton)
        Free Throws Made: 310 – eighth all-time (Next: 316 Kristy Brown, 318 Felicia Sutton)
She is the career leader in free throw shooting percentage at Truman at 86.4%

Quarter Scoring:
Under the new quarter system, put in place this year for Women's Basketball. The Bulldogs are averaging 15.7 points per quarter while allowing 13.7. Truman has scored 20 points or more in a quarter 21 times and has given up 20 in a 10-minute span on 14 occasions. On the flip side, the Bulldogs have not scored 10 points in a quarter 10 times and have held opponents less than 10 points in 24 separate quarters.

The most points scored in a single quarter are 29 against Central Christian and 28 by Bellarmine. The fewest points scored was six against Missouri Southern and two by Illinois Springfield.

The second quarter has been the biggest scoring discrepancy. Truman has scored 441 points in the second while holding opponents to 331 (+110).

Up Next:
The winner will get the winner of the 8:30 p.m. game between top-seeded Lewis and #8 seed Indianapolis. The Flyers are ranked fourth nationally and were a perfect 18-0 in conference play this season.

The game will feature the top two scorers in the GLVC in Lewis' Mariyah Brawner-Henley and UINDY's Princess German. Both averaged over 20 points per night with German winning the scoring title with a 21.1 average to Brawner-Henley's 20.4 mark.

The second semifinal game will take place Saturday afternoon at 2:30 p.m.

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Players Mentioned

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

#40 Sam Andrews: F; 5' 11"; Sophomore

#02 Brooke Bailey: G; 5' 6"; Redshirt Freshman

#30 Kasey Gassensmith: G; 6' 0"; Senior

#42 Ashley Hartwig: F; 5' 11"; Sophomore

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

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

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

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

#34 Cassidy Clark: C; 6' 2"; Junior

Players Mentioned

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

#40 Sam Andrews
: 5' 11"; Sophomore
: F

#02 Brooke Bailey
: 5' 6"; Redshirt Freshman
: G

#30 Kasey Gassensmith
: 6' 0"; Senior
: G

#42 Ashley Hartwig
: 5' 11"; Sophomore
: F

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

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

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

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

#34 Cassidy Clark
: 6' 2"; Junior
: C