KIRKSVILLE, Mo. – The Truman Women's Basketball team hopes to turn things around when they head north to compete at the EverSpring Inn & Suites SMSU Classic in Marshall, Minnesota on Friday and Saturday. The Bulldogs will first face Minot (N.D.) State on Friday and the host Southwest Minnesota State on Saturday.
 
The Bulldogs were winless in their two games at the GLVC/GMAC/GLIAC conference challenge last weekend in Pepper Pike, Ohio. Truman fell to Wisconsin Parkside 78-66 and host Ursuline College 87-77. Hannah Belanger and Ellie Weltha averaged 20 points or more in the two games but the Bulldogs were fighting uphill in both contests.
 
Against UW Parkside, Truman had their best run of the game of nine straight points to take a 45-43 lead into the fourth quarter but a 12-2 push by the Rangers had the Bulldogs trying to battle back again. They got back to within three at 59-56 with 3:31 to play but a 22-5 run had Truman on the wrong end of a 78-66 loss. Belanger scored 28 points in 38+ minutes of play and Weltha added 23 points on 8-of-10 shooting. 
 
A 10-0 run to close out the third quarter gave Ursuline their largest lead of the game at 64-41 but the Bulldogs again battled back to make it a six-point game at 76-70 with 2:08 to play. Alas a three-point play by the Arrows kept Truman at arm's length until Brioenne Burns got it back to a two-possession game with only 10 seconds left. Weltha and Maddie Re led Truman in scoring with 17 apiece and Belanger and Katey Klucking each scored 16 for Truman.
 
As a team, Truman averaged 71.5 points and shot 49% from the field and 33% from three-point range. Opponents averaged 82.5 points and shot 47% from the field and 34% from three. The Bulldogs committed 45 turnovers compared to only 25 by their opposition with a margin of 20-7 in steals in favor of the opponents. The second quarter has been a bugaboo for Truman as they have only scored 14 points in that quarter in the two games.
 
About the Players:
Hannah Belanger, Ellie Weltha, Katey Klucking, Maddie Re and Hannah Pinkston made the two starts in the opening weekend of play. Four of the five starters scored in double-digits led by Belanger with 22 and Weltha with 20. The remaining six players averaged a total of eight points. 
 
Belanger, a WBCA All-American last season, has now gone over 800 (805) career points in 52 games played as a Bulldog. For her career, Belanger has averaged 15.6 points per game with 38 games in double-figures and 14 with 20 or more points. Her career high is 34 points that she scored against Indianapolis last November 29.
 
Weltha is a two-sport star at Truman having led the Truman Softball team with six home runs last spring following an all-conference season on the basketball court. In her 42 career games, Weltha is shooting 62.7% from the field while averaging 7.3 points and 6.9 rebounds. She had nine double-doubles last season and set a career high with 26 points against Missouri-St. Louis and 18 rebounds against Northwood in 2020-21.
 
Katey Klucking is the active leader in games played with 78. She averaged 11.5 points in the opening weekend of play and knocked down a team-high five three-pointers in the first two games. She has 107 three-pointers in her Truman career and is closing in on 600 career points (590).
 
Maddie Re returned to the court after sitting out last season. Re was the team's leading rebounder in 2019-20 and picked off where she left with 8.5 in her first two games back. Re has 13 career double-doubles with 21 games of 10 points or more scoring and 24 games of 10 or more rebounds. Her benchmarks in points is 19 against Rockhurst in 2020 and in rebounds, 16 three times with the last coming against Lindenwood in 2020.
 
Hannah Pinkston earned her first two collegiate starts to kickoff the 2020-21 season. She logged 19.3 minutes per game and was 1-of-4 from the field with six assists. Pinkston has played in 41 career games with a 1.3 scoring average.
 
Brioenne Burns was back in action after missing the second half of last season. Burns averaged four points and was 3-of-5 from the field with a pair of three-pointers. Burns played 41 games at the NCAA Division I level while a member of the Stephen F. Austin team before transferring to Truman.
 
Three freshmen made their collegiate debut in Ohio with Gracie Stugart, Emma Bulman and Madison Niemeier all seeing action off the bench. Stugart logged over 21 minutes in each game and grabbed three rebounds with one assist while only taking one shot. Bulman averaged 12.1 minutes and pulled down four rebounds and Niemeier saw 5.6 minutes per game and had a blocked shot.
 
Claire Rake was the last Truman player to see time with five plus minutes in the Ursuline game. She scored three points on a three-pointer and added a rebound. Rake came off the bench in six games as a freshman last season.
 
Misc. Notes
 
Truman is 60-22 (.731) in their last three seasons with two NCAA Division II Tournament selections. The Bulldogs were the GLVC Central Division Champions last season in the abbreviated COVID year and were the runners-up in the GLVC Postseason Tournament. 
 
Exhibition Season Recap: Truman tested themselves against some Division I competition with two exhibition games in the first week in November. Game one was an 83-58 loss to the University of Northern Iowa out of the Missouri Valley Conference and game two was a 102-32 defeat at the hands of #9 University of Iowa from the Big Ten Conference. 
  
Hannah Belanger led Truman in scoring in the two exhibition games at 13.5 points per game. The Bulldogs led by five after the first quarter against UNI and trailed by only three at the halftime break. The Hawkeyes were in a class above as they scored the game's first 22 points and were never threatened but the Bulldogs. 
 
GLVC Preseason Poll: The Bulldogs were picked to win the GLVC Central Division for the second straight season after picking up the maximum four first-place votes by other coaches in the division. Southern Indiana and Lewis were the split choices by the coaches for the east with USI getting the slight nod 3-2 in first place votes and Drury was the choice in the west with a 4-1 vote. Missouri-St. Louis was the second choice in the central division and will be the opponent when the Bulldogs open up conference play on December 2^nd in Pershing Arena.
  
WBCA Poll: Truman was in a tie for 23^rd in the first Women's Basketball Coaches Association Division II survey. It is the first time Truman has been ranked in a nationwide preseason poll. The Bulldogs were 24^th in the first poll released last February 2^nd by the WBCA. The team received votes in the six remaining poll releases, including the final poll on March 27^th but not enough to crack the top 25. Truman was tied with Colorado Mines and both received 89 total points.

Since the 2018-19 season, Truman has received votes in the WBCA poll 18 times and cracked the top 25 three times prior to this ranking.
 
50^th Season Of Women's Basketball: The 2021-22 season marks the 50^th season of the Bulldogs being recognized as an intercollegiate sport at Truman State. The first campaign occurred in the 1972-73 academic year with Kathy Austin at the helm. The team would go 9-6 in that inaugural season.
The program was active on campus prior to the 72-73 season and won three titles at the Missouri State Sports Day Championships as a club. The squad was known as the "Bulldogettes" those first few years.  
 
Up Next: It will be a somewhat quick turnaround for the Bulldogs as they will travel to Springfield, Missouri for the Drury Thanksgiving Classic on Tuesday and Wednesday. Traditionally, the tournament has been played on the Friday and Saturday following the holiday but due to conference games scheduling earlier than normal, the tournament was pushed up to a pre-holiday event. 
 
The Bulldogs, who have been a regular attendee of the tournament for three of the past four events, will play two opponents that they have never seen. On Tuesday, Truman will face Union (Tenn.) and on Wednesday will face Saginaw Valley (Mich.) State.  
 
Series History w/Minot State: This will be the first ever meeting between the Bulldogs and Beavers from Minot State University. It will only be the second time Truman has played a team from the state of North Dakota having lost to North Dakota State in November of 1997 in Fargo. 
 
About the Beavers: Minot State is 2-3 on the season with wins over Kutztown University and Black Hills State University and losses to Montana State Billings, Nova Southeastern and Black Hills State. They won an exhibition game on Tuesday night over Dickinson State University 62-54. Amber Stevahn has scored 100 points in the five games (20.0/g) and has made four of her seven three-point attempts. Kate Head is the assist leader and floor general at 38.6 minutes per game and 23 assists and seven steals. Stevahn averaged a team-high 15.2 points in 14 games last season in which the Beavers went 4-10.  
 
Series History w/Southwest Minnesota St.: The two teams played once back in 2009 with Truman winning 71-59 in Marshall, Minnesota. Malorie Kiecker led Truman in scoring that game with 12 points with Laura Joya adding 11. Abby Kenealy led the Mustangs with 17 points. 
 
 About the Mustangs: Southwest Minnesota State picked up two wins at the Northwest Missouri State Tournament last weekend in Maryville. The Mustangs downed the host Bearcats 64-48 in the opener and Nebraska-Kearney 76-66 to complete the sweep. Meleah Reinhart was 13-29 from the field and made 17-of-18 free throws to average 22.5 points in the pair of games. Reinhart also led SMSU in rebounds at 7.5 per night. Reinhart scored 27 points in the Mustangs win over UNK. Reinhart averaged 15.7 in 14 games last season with a high of 28 against Sioux Falls. SMSU was 9-5 in the abbreviated COVID season and 16-12 in the last full season of play.