NOTES: Bulldogs Take Their Shot At #1 Drury; Return Home For Senior Day Saturday

Complete Notes (PDF)

KIRKSVILLE, Mo. – A split road and home games is on tap in the penultimate week of the regular season for Truman Women's Basketball. The Bulldogs will take their shot against #1 and undefeated Drury University on Thursday night in Springfield before returning home for the final time and hosting old friend and new conference member Southwest Baptist University on Saturday for Senior Day.

Truman escaped the Eastern Time zone trip with a 1-1 record after falling to Bellarmine on Thursday 72-62 and bouncing back with a 69-53 victory over the University of Indianapolis on Saturday. The Bulldogs are third in the Great Lakes Valley point rating system, just three-hundredths of point behind second place Lewis University and three-hundredths ahead of fourth place Southern Indiana.

The Drury Lady Panthers are 25-0 overall, 16-0 in the GLVC and have won their last six games by a margin of 44.6 points per game. The Lady Panthers have won 45-straight conference games (last loss at Bellarmine, 84-70, Jan. 18, 2018), 58-straight conference games at home (last loss vs. Indianapolis, 85-68, Jan. 5, 2014) and 40-straight overall home games (last loss vs. #2 Emporia State, 74-59, Nov. 26, 2016).

Southwest Baptist will play at home against Quincy before trekking to Kirksville for the first time since 2013 when both were members of the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association. The Bearcats are 11^th in the GLVC PSR with a 6-10 league record and 12-12 overall mark. The streaking SBU team lost four straight before winning three in a row before heading into this week's games on a three-game losing streak.

The Bulldogs took advantage of a poor shooting day by UINDY in Saturday's win. The Greyhounds scored the first basket of the game then preceded to miss their next 15 field goal attempts and were behind by 12 early in the second quarter. UINDY missed all 16 shots from beyond the arc and became the first Bulldog conference opponent to not hit from three since a 2012 game against Northwest Missouri State (0-of-10).

Maddie Re turned in her eighth double-double of the season, which is tied for fourth among conference players thus far. Kallie Bildner (15) of Lindenwood and Mykla Baylor (14) of Missouri S&T have the most in the league followed by Alex LaPorta (UMSL-9) and Hailey Diestelkamp (Drury-8) and Abby Monis (Maryville-8). Re had 15 points and 14 boards to lead the Bulldogs.

Dissecting the Truman lineup is as easy as looking at the five starters. The Bulldogs have sent the same group out there for 22 of 23 games with the lone exception being a game missed by junior Katie Jaseckas in early January. The five starters (Re, Jaseckas, Sloane Totta, Katey Klucking and Hannah Belanger) are all averaging above 26 minutes per game and have accounted for 77% of the scoring. No Truman starter the last two seasons averaged more than 26 minutes per contest.
Totta is leading the team in scoring at 13.8 points per game and is on the cusp of entering the single-season top 10 in assists with 118. She is third in the conference both overall and league games in assists and will tie Lisa Jacques (1980) and Amy Galey (2010) on the career list with her next helper and is three back of Galey (2011) and Jeanette Cleven (1987) for seventh. She is third on the team in triples made with 46 and also the steals leader with 28.

Jaseckas is next in scoring at 13.2 per night and has strung together eight straight double-digit games while averaging 17.7 during that span. She has also connected on a career-season best 20 three-pointers this year after having made a total of 24 triples her first two seasons.  She is shooting 54% in conference games this season and fourth in the league in blocked shots with 42. That total is good for fourth highest in a season at Truman having recently surpassed Jennifer Perkins' 2002 total of 41.

Re is the rebounding machine with 10 per night and 10.3 per conference game. She is also shooting above 55% from the field in both overall and league tilts. Re scores at a 9.6 clip per game and her 230 season rebounds is six shy of cracking the single-season top 10 mark head by Perkins in 2002.

Klucking has taken 10 or more three-pointers in the last three games and has knocked down 10. Her 146 three-pointers attempted leads the Bulldogs and her 63 assists are second. Klucking has four 20-point plus games this season and averaging 9.9 overall and 9.5 points in league games.

Hannah Belanger is the leading all conference freshmen in overall scoring at 11.9 points per game and is only two points behind Quincy's Laney Lantz for the freshman scoring lead in conference games with 12.3 points per game. Belanger leads Truman is three-pointers made with 50 and is shooting 42% from outside.  Belanger has the highest single-game point total this season for Truman when she scored 29 in a game against Illinois Springfield.

The Bulldog bench has averaged 17.2 points per game this season with Tiffany Davenport being the only reserve to play in all 23 games. Davenport averages 5.4 points per game. Maya Mouton (22 games/2.2 ppg), Hannah Pinkston (18 games/1.1 ppg), Alex Wiese (17 games/1.6 ppg), Ellie Weltha (15 games/1.2 ppg) and Nicole Dorn (11 games/0.7 ppg) round out the Truman bench.

History With Drury:
This history with the Drury has been one-sided with the Lady Panthers winning all 15 previous games played between the two schools. Last year's regular season game matched the closest margin of victory in the series when Truman fell by six 72-66. Drury led by 10 in the fourth quarter only to watch Truman battle back and close to within three at 69-66 with 2:08 to play. After Drury missed a pair of free throws, the Bulldogs missed on a tying three-point attempt with 1:17 to go and Daejah Bernard was able to knock down three free throws to preserve the win. Hailey Diestelkamp scored 23 points with 11 rebounds to lead Drury while Brooke Bailey led Truman with 22.

About the Lady Panthers:
Creating turnovers is priority number one for the Drury Lady Panthers as they have forced 755 (30.2/game) this season to lead all of Division II by over 100…in league games, they have forced 29.1 turnovers per game and has a turnover margin of +13.6…they are also number one in steals with 428 (17.1/g) and have three players, Hailey Diestelkamp (65), Lauren Holmes (64) and Daejah Bernard (64) being 1-2-3 in the league rankings in steals…Diestelkamp will be under consideration for GLVC player of the year honors as the senior averages 19.8 points and 7.2 rebounds per game, she is the reigning GLVC player of the week...Bernard only averages 3.6 points per game but has dished out 135 assists with 64 steals…only one Drury player has fouled out of a game this season (Kelsey Winfrey), while 10 opponents have fouled out.

History With Southwest Baptist:
After nearly a seven-year hiatus, Truman and Southwest Baptist will resume their storied history on Saturday when the Bearcats make their GLVC debut against the Bulldogs. The two teams have played 50 previous times with SBU leading 31-19. Truman had won and is on a seven-game winning streak against SBU with their last game occurring on March 5^th, 2013 in the last MIAA game played in Pershing Arena. The Bulldogs won the first round MIAA tournament game 65-56 to advance to Municipal Auditorium and the quarterfinal round. The last SBU win was February 6, 2010 in Bolivar, 67-51.

About the Bearcats:
SBU's first season in the GLVC has produced a 12-12 overall record and 6-10 league mark…the Bearcats were 10-18 and 6-13 a year ago in the MIAA…they are last in conference games in scoring margin at -10.3 and in the bottom tier of the league in most statistic catagories including scoring offense (66.1/12^th), scoring defense (76.4/14^th), field goal percentage (.383/14^th) and rebounding margin (-2.1/12^th)…Bailey Rezabek is seventh in conference only scoring and leads SBU at 15.7 points per night…she has averaged 16.6 points overall on 47 three-pointers and a team-high 46 steals…Kyleight Vaught has 48 triples and averages 11.7 points per game and leads in assists with 92.

Up Next:
Truman will play their final two regular season games on the road and both will be return games from ones previously played this season. On Thursday, the Bulldogs will be in St. Louis to face Maryville University and the league's leading scorer Mary Barton (26.0/g). Truman escaped with a 78-77 win back on January 11^th in Pershing Arena with Maddie Re scoring on an inbounds play with two seconds left.  Barton and Abby Monis each had 28. The regular season finale will be at Missouri S&T next Saturday. Truman won 87-71 on January 9^th.

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Players Mentioned

#3 Amy Galey: G; 5' 6"; Senior

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

#24 Tiffany Davenport: G; 5' 6"; Junior

#54 Katie Jaseckas: F; 6' 2"; Junior

#33 Katey Klucking: G; 5' 9"; Sophomore

#34 Maya Mouton: F; 6' 3"; Junior

#23 Maddie Re: F; 6' 1"; Redshirt Sophomore

#4 Sloane Totta: G; 5' 9"; Senior

#32 Ellie Weltha: F; 5' 10"; Redshirt Freshman

#13 Hannah Belanger: G; 5' 8"; Freshman

Players Mentioned

#3 Amy Galey
: 5' 6"; Senior
: G

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

#24 Tiffany Davenport
: 5' 6"; Junior
: G

#54 Katie Jaseckas
: 6' 2"; Junior
: F

#33 Katey Klucking
: 5' 9"; Sophomore
: G

#34 Maya Mouton
: 6' 3"; Junior
: F

#23 Maddie Re
: 6' 1"; Redshirt Sophomore
: F

#4 Sloane Totta
: 5' 9"; Senior
: G

#32 Ellie Weltha
: 5' 10"; Redshirt Freshman
: F

#13 Hannah Belanger
: 5' 8"; Freshman
: G