KIRKSVILLE, Mo. - A pre-holiday trip to Florida is on the slate for the Truman State Women's Basketball team. The Bulldogs will play 7-2 Florida Southern on Friday afternoon before taking on #8 nationally-ranked and 8-1 Eckerd (Fla.) College on Saturday.

Truman State stumbled on the road at Southwest Baptist in their last outing as the Bearcats held the Bulldogs to below 60 points for the first time this season and season lows in shooting percentage at 35% in a 72-59 loss on Saturday. The Bearcats outscored the Bulldogs 23-12 in the fourth quarter and used a 9-0 run midway through the final stanza to pull away for their second straight victory over Truman State. Ellie Weltha led the Bulldogs with 18 points and Hannah Belanger added 13.

Florida Southern picked up two conference wins and have won seven of their last eight games when they defeated Barry 69-57 and Florida Tech 72-48 in their last two outings. The only loss during the stretch came against Eckerd 72-60 on November 30th. The Mocs were 20-10 last season and made the NCAA Division II tournament field before losing to Eckerd 69-64 in the opening round.

Eckerd has been an NCAA Tournament team in six of their last seven seasons. The Tritons were 21-5 last season and 15-5 in the Sunshine State Conference. Their only loss this season came against Angelo (Texas) State 70-63 on November 22nd. Eckerd will play Drury in a high-profile game on Friday before taking on the Bulldogs on Saturday.

The last time Truman headed to Florida for games was 2019, defeating Palm Beach Atlantic and Barry in Fort Lauderdale.

Against Florida Southern:

These two teams played once before in 1978 as then Northeast Missouri State played three Florida schools in three days to open the season. After losing to Florida State 87-61, the Bulldogs defeated Florida Southern 71-54 on November 21, 1978. The next day, the Bulldogs beat Florida Tech 42-39. 

Against Eckerd:

There is also history with Eckerd with the Tritons defeated Truman 61-52 on December 16, 1996. The next day, the Bulldogs defeated Tampa 72-68 on the two-game swing through the state. 

Truman Tidbits:

Hannah Belanger is 14 points shy of becoming only the fifth Truman State player to score over 1,500 career points. Belanger sits at 1,486 prior to the two Florida games and will join Carol Jarrard (2,009), Georgia Mueller (1,897), Felcia Sutton (1,578) and Amy Eagan (1,527) on that elite list. 

Belanger has played and started 89 career games and averages 16.7 points per game in her Bulldog career. 

This season, Belanger is sixth in Division II and leads the GLVC in scoring at 22.0 points per game.

Graduate transfer Alex Fanning has scored 1,115 career points along with pulling down 939 career rebounds and blocked 248 career shots. 

Ellie Weltha is closing in on 1,000 career points at 915 in 80 career games while also inching close to over 700 career rebounds (695). She will be the sixth Bulldog to crack over 700 career rebounds.

Weltha is sixth in Division II in total rebounds (111) this season and 26th overall and first in the GLVC in rebounds per game at 10.1.

Gracie Stugart and Hannah Pinkston have completed the starting line up with those previously mentioned three players in all 11 games this season. 

Up Next:

The Bulldogs will be off until an exhibition game against William Woods (Mo.) on January 2nd. The next regular season game will be against Quincy (Ill.) on January 5th.