KIRKSVILLE, Mo. – The Truman Women's Basketball team will hope the home cooking of Pershing Arena can turn things around as the Bulldogs host Upper Iowa on Sunday afternoon in a non-conference matchup.
 
Truman is 2-4 on the young season after suffering a pair of single-digit losses at the Drury Thanksgiving Classic on Tuesday and Wednesday. The Bulldogs had second half leads in both games slip away. Against Union, Truman led 44-41 with 2:13 to play in the third quarter only to see the opposing Bulldogs outscore the Truman Bulldogs 21-16 in the fourth and go on for a 67-60 win. Against Saginaw Valley State, Truman led by 10 at 64-54 with seven minutes to play but a 15-3 run by the Cardinals eventually turned into a 77-72 win on Wednesday.
 
Ellie Weltha continues to be the scoring and rebounding leader for the Bulldogs as she averaged 19 points in the two losses with games of 13 and 25 points respectively for Truman. On the season, Weltha is averaging 20.8 points and 11.2 rebounds per night. She has scored over 20 points in four games and four double-doubles in the six games played.
 
Hannah Belanger is second in scoring at 17 points per game and is leading the team in assists at 4.8 per contest. Maddie Re has scored in double-figures in her last five games and went 11-of-14 in the two games earlier in the week. Re had a career-high five steals in Truman's loss to Union. It was the first time in 196 games that a Bulldog recorded five individual steals which was last accomplished by assistant coach Amy Briggs against Lewis in March of 2014. 
 
As a team, Truman averages 70.8 points per game while shooting 47% overall from the field but 27.0% from three on five three-pointers per game. The Bulldogs are shooting 72% from the foul line with 14.8 assists per game and a rebounding margin of 7.5 per night. Truman is a minus four in turnovers to their opponents at 16 per game compared to 12. Opponents have scored on average 73 points while shooting 46% overall, 37% from three and 83% from the free throw line. Last year, Truman made 37% of their three-point shots and averaged over eight triples per game.
 
About the Players:
Hannah Belanger, Ellie Weltha, Katey Klucking, Maddie Re and Hannah Pinkston made the six starts this season. The bulk of the scoring has come from four of the five starters led by Weltha's 20.8, Belanger's 17.0, Re's 12.2 and Klucking's 9.8. Those four have taken 82% of the shots this season and have scored 94% of the points. Brioenne Burns is the fifth Truman player in scoring at 3.5 points (21) on 15 shot attempts.
 
Belanger, a WBCA All-American last season, has over 800 (867) career points in 56 games played as a Bulldog. For her career, Belanger has averaged 15.5 points per game with 42 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. Belanger has made 146 three-pointers, good for eighth on the Truman career list and three back of Susan Theroff's 149. She can vault up to fourth this season with only eight more triples. (Rachel Edmundson – 151, Angie Gum – 152, Courtney Strait – 154). Third on the list is 230 by Candace McGee. 
 
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 46 career games, Weltha is shooting 61.3% from the field while averaging 8.5 points and 7.5 rebounds. She has 13 career double-doubles. 
 
Katey Klucking is the active leader in games played with 82. She went over the 600-point threshold for her career last weekend and sits at 626 on 7.6 points per game average. Klucking has 111 made.
 
Maddie Re has over 500 career points (524) and 500 career rebounds (531). Re is tied for 14^th on the career rebounding charts with Ashley Hartwig and would need 70 more this season to tie Jennifer Fisher for 10^th on the list. Re has scored in double-figures in five straight games and has 13 career double-doubles. 
 
Hannah Pinkston has been the fifth starter this season and is logging 19 minutes per game. Pinkston has the best assist/turnover ratio on the team at 14 assists to just four turnovers. 
 
Brioenne Burns has appeared in all six games this season off the bench and four of her six shots made have been from beyond the arc. 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 18 minutes in each game and grabbed 11 rebounds, eight assists and five steals.  Bulman averaged 12.1 minutes, scored 13 points and 12 rebounds and Niemeier has made all four free throw attempts.
 
Claire Rake, Nicole Dorn and Kennedy Wallace have also seen limited playing time this season. Rake has been in three games with a three-pointer. Dorn and Wallace have been in one contest each.
 
Up Next: Conference season kicks off with a pair of home games on Thursday and Saturday of this week. The Bulldogs will welcome central division rivals Missouri-St. Louis and Maryville University to Pershing Arena. The Tritons are 3-1 and will open up GLVC play on Monday at Quincy while Maryville is 3-2 and will play two league games, at Lindenwood on Monday and at home versus McKendree on Thursday. It will be the first of two meetings against the Tritons and Saints this season.
 
Fans are allowed to return to Pershing Arena for games this season, however the current Truman State University policy is that all fans must be masked while indoors on campus. Tip time on Thursday is 5:15 p.m. and at 1 p.m. on Saturday.  
 
Series History w/Upper Iowa: Truman is 5-0 against Upper Iowa all time with the last contest played in 2016 in Pershing Arena. The Bulldogs won 72-61 behind 18 points from Iowa native Rachel Edmundson. Truman trailed 13-9 after one but took a 32-29 lead into the locker room at half. The teams met in Fayette, Iowa the year prior with Truman winning 74048. They played twice in 2006, a home and home series with the Bulldogs winning 88-76 in Kirksville and 51-50 in Fayette. The first meeting was in 1980, a 64-36 Truman, then Northeast Missouri State, triumph.   
 
About the Peacocks: Upper Iowa is 1-3 on the young season with a win over Arkansas-Monticello 85-72 in the season opener in Jefferson City, Missouri and losses to Southern Arkansas (102-96), Rockhurst (78-64) and a conference home loss to Winona State 73-69. The Peacocks feature two big scorers in Jessica Musgrave and Lydia Haack. Both average over 18 points per night and both are shooting over 50% from the field. Musgrave had 33 points in the loss to Southern Arkansas and is the leading foul shooter with 24 attempts with 18 makes this season. Haack has played all but three minutes in the last three games with a 25-point night also against Southern Arkansas. Haack leads the team with 20 assists. As a team, UIU has averaged 78 points per game. Last season, Upper Iowa won their opener in overtime but then lost their next 15 straight to finish 1-15 on the season.