KIRKSVILLE, Mo. - Riding a three-game winning streak, including two at home to open Great Lakes Valley Conference play, the Truman State Women's Basketball team embarks on a two-game trip through Illinois this weekend. The Bulldogs will be in Chicago to face Lewis University on Thursday evening then head south to Springfield to face Illinois Springfield on Saturday afternoon.

The league's top scoring offense at 81.1 points per game dispatched McKendree (79-72) and the University of Indianapolis (86-75) in the two games played in Pershing Arena on Saturday and Monday. Ellie Weltha, the reigning GLVC Player of the Week, averaged 23.5 points and 12 rebounds in those two games while connecting on 60% of her shot attempts. She pulled down a season-high 16 boards on Monday evening and added three assists while Truman scored 14 straight points in the fourth quarter to overtake UINDY. 

Lewis found the win column for the first time this season in their two GLVC openers. They defeated Illinois Springfield 88-53 and Quincy 73-64 with both games played on the road. The Flyers dropped their first four games to start the season under new head coach Keisha Newell.

The Prairie Stars are also under the direction of a new leader with Summer Quesenberry taking over the program this season. UIS has struggled out of the gate to an 0-6 record and will have a chance to notch their first win when they host Quincy prior to Truman's visit on Saturday. 

Against Lewis:

The Flyers stopped Truman's four-game winning streak against them and ended the Bulldogs season in their last meeting. Lewis downed Truman 83-75 in the quarterfinal round of the GLVC Tournament in Edwardsville, Illinois last March as the Flyers knocked down six three-pointers in the first quarter and had the Bulldogs playing catch-up the rest of the game. Grace Hilber and Kathryn Schmidt each scored over 20 points for Lewis while Truman got a career-high 29 from Ellie Weltha and 28 from Hannah Belanger. Hilber and Schmidt combine for 10 triples on the game. The last 10 games have been split evenly at five apiece and and Truman is 2-3 in Romeoville with a 74-61 win in their last visit.

Against Illinois Springfield:

UIS held Truman to their lowest game total of the season in defeating the Bulldogs 60-46 in Pershing Arena last February to spoil senior day. A 20-5 burst out of the locker room proved costly for the Bulldogs who shot just 28% for the game and made six of 24 three-point attempts. UIS's Lauren Ladowski led all scorers with 30 points and Ellie Weltha paced the Bulldogs with 20. Truman had won five straight and 12 of the previous 13 games against the Prairie Stars. This is the Bulldogs first trip to UIS since the 2016-17 season when they downed Springfield 76-71. 

Truman Tidbits:

In addition to leading the GLVC in scoring, Truman is first in shooting (46.5%), three-pointers made per night (8.8), defensive rebounds, rebounding margin (+6.5), assists (16.6) and assist/turnover ratio (1.19).

Hannah Belanger is fifth in Division II scoring at 23.2 points per game this season and leads all of the conference scorers. 

Belanger climbed over 1400 career points in her last games and sits 31 points back of sixth place on the all-time scoring list at Truman State.

Ellie Weltha is fifth in scoring in the league at 16.1 and is tops in rebounding at 9.5 per night. She is second in shooting at 53.8%.

Weltha's 660 career rebounds is seventh in school history and 12 back of sixth place. 

Gracie Stugart is third in the GLVC in assists (3.6), first in free throws and second in assist/turnover ratio. 

Alex Fanning is averaging 9.9 points and 5.9 rebounds this season. Fanning has over 1,100 career points (1,104) after transferring in from Benedictine (Ill.) and has 247 blocked shots and 929 career rebounds.