Truman vs. Quincy Game Notes (PDF)
Truman vs. Lewis Game Notes (PDF)
Truman vs. McKendree Game Notes (PDF)
(Check back after each game for updated PDF Notes)
KIRKSVILLE, Mo. – The Truman Women's Basketball team will look to resume their season on Tuesday night at Quincy University after having Sunday's game against Lindenwood declared a "no contest".
The game was bagged on Friday by the Great Lakes Valley Conference after Lindenwood did not meet the required eight healthy player minimum to compete. The conference policy states that if a team does not have the minimum number of players, the game will be declared a no-contest and will not be made up.
The Bulldogs dispatched Hannibal-LaGrange 94-37 in their final game prior to the break on December 19.
Hannah Belanger led the team with 19 points and is starting to heat up from distance. The Bulldog junior has made 17 of her last 35 (48.5%) three-pointers and had her second five-triple day against the Trojans. Belanger is closing in on 1,000 career points and will become the 23
rd Bulldog player and only eighth to accomplish the feat in less than three full seasons. Belanger sits at 948 points prior to the start of the week.
Truman got to .500 on the season after the non-conference win and are 1-1 in league play with a win over Maryville (Mo.) 70-67 and a loss to Missouri-St. Louis 57-54.
The Bulldogs have won the last seven meetings against Quincy, the longest such streak in the series between the two neighboring schools. However last season, the two programs did not play for the first time since the 2010-11 season. Both games were cancelled and not made up due to COVID protocols.
The Lady Hawks are 4-6 under new head coach Kaci Bailey. Their holiday break return was cancelled as well as Maryville University could not meet the minimum players for Sunday's game. Quincy's last action was their first Division II win, a 71-62 win over Purdue Northwest on December 20. Sarah Nelson led the team in scoring with 15 points.
Truman will return home to face Lewis (Ill.) on Thursday with the Flyers entering the week with a 3-7 record and under the direction of a new coach in Matt Nelson. Truman swept the season series last year against Lewis by winning in Romeoville 76-66 and in Kirksville 83-74.
The final stop of the week sees Truman in Lebanon, Illinois to face the 1-9 McKendree Bearcats. Truman is 16-1 all-time against McKendree and have won the last 11, including last year's slim 68-65 win. It will be the Bulldog's third straight trip to the McKendree campus for basketball.
Through the first 10 games, the Bulldogs are fifth in the GLVC in scoring offense at 72 points scored per game and seventh in scoring defense at 65.2 points allowed. Truman leads the conference in field goal shooting percentage at 47.3% but are 13
th out of 15 in three-point shooting at 28.7%. Opponents are shooting 43% overall, good for 12
th and a league-high 36% from three-point land.
About the Players:
Hannah Belanger,
Ellie Weltha and
Katey Klucking have been starters for all 10 games while
Maddie Re and
Hannah Pinkston have started nine of the 10.
Belanger is third in the conference in scoring at 18.3 points per game while Weltha is seventh at 16.4. Re is also among the league leaders in scoring at 12 points per game, good for 21
st. Weltha is second behind Lindenwood's Julia Ruzevich in rebounds at 9.8 per night and joins Re in the top four in field goal percentage. Re is second at 66.7% and Weltha is fourth at 57.4% shooting.
Belanger is second in assists at 4.9 per game, second in minutes per game at 35.5 and fourth in three-pointers made per game at 2.6. Belanger has scored in double-figures in all 10 games this season and 11 straight dating back to last year.
Weltha started the year with four 20-point games in her first six. In her last two games, she has gone 8-of-12 from the field with only one missed shot inside the arc during those two games. Weltha has had four double-doubles this season.
Re returned to action after sitting out last season and has scored in double-figures in her last eight games. She went five-for-five with a three-pointer in her last outing against Maryville, which included nine rebounds. On the season, she leads the team with 10 steals.
Klucking has started the last 35 games dating back to the 2019-20 season and averages 9.6 points per game this year. She has 28 assists, six blocks and eight steals and has scored in double-figures in six of the 10 games. Her game high this season has been 16 points against Ursuline (Ohio). She is within 20 made three-pointers in her career from joining the Bulldog career list. She has 116 made threes and 663 career points.
Pinkston returned to the starting lineup against Hannibal-LaGrange and went 4-for-5 and added four rebounds and two assists. On the season, Pinkston has 16 assists and averages 2.6 points per game.
Allison Thomas has gotten the nod to start in the last two games after missing the first seven to start the season. Thomas has averaged seven points and five rebounds in 13 minutes of action per game. She is the active leader in blocked shots with 32 in 73 games played.
Three Bulldogs have come off the bench in all 10 games. Senior
Brioenne Burns has averaged 2.5 points per game in nearly 16 minutes per outing. Freshmen
Gracie Stugart has averaged nearly 15 minutes per night and is shooting 47% from the field with 17 assists and six steals and
Emma Bulman is notching 12 minutes and 2.9 points and 2.2 rebounds per game.
Claire Rake and Maddison Niemeier have appeared in seven games each and
Kennedy Wallace (3),
Nicole Dorn (3) and
Gabby Nielsen (2) have played.
Up Next: After this four-game stretch, Truman will play five games over a 10-day span. The Bulldogs will be at Missouri S&T on January 13, rematch at Maryville on January 15. Return home for a Monday conference game against Drury on January 17 then go back out on the road for rematches with Missouri-St. Louis on January 20 and Lindenwood on January 22.
Series History w/Quincy: Truman is 8-2 in their last 10 against the Lady Hawks and have won a series best seven straight over Quincy. Last year, both games against the Lady Hawks were cancelled due to COVID protocols so the last on-court action between the two rivals occurred on January 20, 2020, a 64-57 Bulldog win.
Hannah Belanger led Truman with 14 points and
Maddie Re added nine with 16 rebounds. Alexa Low paced the Lady Hawks with 14 points and nine rebounds. Quincy's last win in the series came in the 2016 GLVC Postseason Tournament, a 62-42 win in the quarterfinal round in St. Charles, Missouri.
About the Lady Hawks: Quincy will play at Maryville on Sunday before greeting the Bulldogs at Pepsi Arena on Tuesday. New Head Coach Kaci Bailey has already doubled the win total from last season with their 4-6 record. Quincy went 2-18 in conference only games last year. Junior Beth Matas Martin is the only Lady Hawks player averaging over 10 points per night (10.1). Quincy is making 7.7 three-pointers per game while shooting 33% from long range. Three of Quincy's four wins have been outside of Division II (William Penn, Hannibal-LaGrange, Iowa Wesleyan). Their only Division II win was their last non-conference game against Purdue-Northwest 71-62.
Series History w/Lewis: After dropping six straight to the Flyers from 2015 through 2019, the Bulldogs have been the winners in three of the last four matchups with Lewis. Truman swept the season series with the Flyers last year with an 76-66 road win and a 83-74 home win in 2020-21. The only loss in the last four was an 80-79 loss in Kirksville. In the most recent outing with Lewis,
Hannah Belanger scored 22,
Katey Klucking added 18 and
Ellie Weltha scored 14 for Truman and Grace Hilber scored 21 for Lewis. The Flyers led by seven late in the third quarter but Truman outpaced Lewis 25-11 in the fourth for the win.
About the Flyers: Lewis will play Illinois Springfield and Southern Indiana, both at home, prior to trekking to Kirksville for Thursday's game. Lewis lost six of their first seven games out of the gate with their only win coming against Purdue Northwest 78-57. They lost their first conference game to Indianapolis 79-67 but bounced back with a 69-50 road league win at McKendree. Kathryn Schmidt and Grace Hilber each average over 15 points per game for Lewis but the team has a negative rebounding margin (-6.8). Lewis went 13-9 last season with Schmidt averaging nearly 13 points per game.
Series History w/McKendree: It has been a fairly one-sided affair between Truman and McKendree with the Bulldogs taking 16 of the 17 games. Truman is making their third straight trip to the McKendree campus and five of the last six have been played in Lebanon, Illinois. Last year, the Bulldogs hung on for a 68-65 win. The game was tied at 58 with 3:40 to play. Free throws by
Hannah Belanger with eight seconds showing gave Truman a six-point lead and Sydney Diekhoff hit a triple at the buzzer to make the final margin three. Belanger finished with 25 points while Diekhoff added 17 for the Bearcats. McKendree's lone win in the series came in 1988, a 71-64 win at home.
About the Bearcats: McKendree has dropped nine of 10 and all three league games thus far. They will play Southern Indiana and Indianapolis on Sunday and Tuesday and will have the luxury of being off on Thursday prior to Truman's visit. McKendree's lone win this season came against Blackhurn College on November 23 (90-71). The Bearcats average a league-worst 49.5 points per game and have been outscored, on average by over 23 points per game. Christy Fortune is the leading scorer at 12 points per night and has made a team-high 22 three-pointers. McKendree was 8-13 last season.
