KIRKSVILLE, Mo. – Tasked with four games in six days, the Truman Women's Basketball will look to complete the quartet sweep when they head to Springfield, Missouri for the Drury Thanksgiving Classic on Tuesday and Wednesday. 
 
This will be the fourth time Truman has played in the classic and they will open things up with Union (Tenn.) University. The Union Bulldogs are 2-1 on the young season having played two straight ranked opponents in their last two games. Union lost to #11 Tampa 77-67 on the road on November 13 and defeated #6 Central Missouri at home 79-75.
 
On Wednesday afternoon, the Truman Bulldogs will square off against regional opponent Saginaw Valley (Mich.) State. The Cardinals are 4-1 but lost their last game to GLVC member Southern Indiana at home 65-64 and will face host Drury on Tuesday. 
 
The Bulldogs picked up their first two wins of the season by sweeping their duo of games in Marshall, Minnesota. Ellie Weltha was the force needed for the victories as she averaged 23 points and 15 rebounds. Weltha scored 21 and grabbed 16 boards in Truman's 77-69 win over Minot (N.D.) State and matched her career-high 26 points with 14 rebounds in a 73-62 win over host Southwest Minnesota State on Saturday.
 
For the season, Weltha averages 21.8 points and 11 rebounds in four games and has scored over 20 points in three of the four contest. Hannah Belanger, while struggling from outside on just 7-of-28 (.250) shooting, has found other ways to get her points as she averages 18.8 per game with six rebounds and is leading the team in assists with 17.
 
While the O'Reilly Family Events Center in Springfield has been a "House of Horrors" for Truman when facing the host Lady Panthers, the Bulldogs are 6-4 in games played against other opponents. In the last three seasons, Truman has played 12 games on the court and have gone 5-7 with four of the losses to Drury. The Bulldogs have gone 1-1 in the Thanksgiving Classic in 2019, 2018 and 1016. 
 
As a team, Truman averages 73.3 points per game while shooting 47% overall from the field but 25.6% from three on five three-pointers per game. The Bulldogs are shooting 72% from the foul line with 15.3 assists per game and a rebounding margin of 8.7 per night. Truman is a minus five in turnovers to their opponents at 17 per game compared to 12. Opponents have scored on average 74 points while shooting 44% overall, 32% from three and 85% from the free throw line.
 
About the Players:
Hannah Belanger, Ellie Weltha, Katey Klucking, Maddie Re and Hannah Pinkston made the four starts this season. The bulk of the scoring has come from four of the five starters led by Weltha's 21.8, Belanger's 18.8, Re's 11.8 and Klucking's 11.0. In fact, outside of those four players, only one, freshman Emma Bulman, has taken more than 10 shots this season (11). 
 
Belanger, a WBCA All-American last season, has over 800 (840) career points in 54 games played as a Bulldog. For her career, Belanger has averaged 15.6 points per game with 40 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 44 career games, Weltha is shooting 62.1% from the field while averaging 8.1 points and 7.3 rebounds. She has 11 career double-doubles. 
 
Katey Klucking is the active leader in games played with 80. She went over the 600-point threshold for her career last weekend and sits at 611 on 7.6 points per game average. Klucking has 108 made triples and is the team's early leader this season in steals with six.
 
Maddie Re has picked up where she left off after sitting out last season. Re is on the cusp of 500 career points (498) and has already grabbed over 500 career rebounds (524). Re has started 38 of her 63 games played with a 7.9 points and 8.3 rebounding average. 
 
Hannah Pinkston has been the fifth starter this season and is logging 18 minutes per game. Pinkston has the best assist/turnover ratio on the team at 10 assists to just two turnovers. 
 
Brioenne Burns was back in action after missing the second half of last season. Burns has knocked down four of her eight shot attempts and three of five from outside in 14.7 minutes per game. 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 have taken the court this season in Gracie Stugart, Emma Bulman and Madison Niemeier all seeing action off the bench. Stugart logged over 17 minutes in each game and grabbed nine rebounds five assists and four steals.  Bulman averaged 12.1 minutes, scored eight points and seven rebounds and Niemeier saw 4.1 minutes per game and had a blocked shot.
 
Claire Rake and Nicole Dorn have both seen action off the bench in one game this season.
 
Up Next: After four games in six days, Truman will play four games in 22 days to close out 2021. Two important GLVC games are sandwiched between two non-conference games, all at home. Truman will play Upper Iowa on Sunday in the home opener at 2 p.m. in Pershing Arena. 
 
 Series History w/Union: This will be the first meeting between the Bulldogs on the basketball court. Union has been a Division II member since 2013 after previously playing as a member of the NAIA. The Bulldogs won the NAIA National tournament five times, the last in 2010 and since joining the NCAA Division II, have been to the Division II tournament six times, including the last four tournaments.  
 
About the Bulldogs: Union went 19-5, claimed the Gulf South Conference tournament championship and like the Truman Bulldogs, won their first NCAA tournament game before falling to top seed in their region, North Georgia 66-58 in the regional semifinals. Four Bulldogs average in double-figures led by Jaelencia Williams at 16.7 points and 12 rebounds per game. The post player shoots 60% from the field, has five blocks on the season and is 10-of-16 from the foul line. Ashtyn Baker is next in scoring at 15 per game followed by Shanique Lucas (13.3) and Emily Beard (11.7). Beard is the team leader in three's with 10. Lucas' basket with 31 seconds left broke a 75-all tie against Central Missouri and Union downed the Jennies 79-75 on Saturday.  
 
Series History w/Saginaw Valley St.:  This will also be the first meeting between Truman and Saginaw Valley State on the court. The Cardinals have been a longtime member of the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletics Conference (GLIAC). They were 10-10 last season and when looking at recent common opponents, the Cardinals split last year with UW Parkside falling 65-55 and winning 76-69. They played Southern Indiana on Saturday at home. The Cardinals trailed by six with 2:28 to go, scored the next four points and had the last possession but a turnover with one second left gave USI the 65-64 win. 
 
About the Cardinals: Saginaw Valley raced out of the gates with four straight regional wins to start the season. They defeated Hillsdale 81-65 and Findlay 83-52 at home then went on the road to down Ohio Dominican 52-49 and Tiffin 76-64 before their loss to Southern Indiana. The Cardinals have averaged 71.2 points per game while shooting 46.8% from the field and 37.1% from three. Kaitlyn Zarycki is the leader of four players scoring in double-figures this season. Zarycki has averaged 16 points in the five games played and is averaging over three steals per game. Maddie Maloney is next at 15 points. The Cardinals were picked fourth in the GLIAC South Division in the preseason coaches poll.