KIRKSVILLE, Mo. - Hitting their stride with a five-game winning streak, the Truman State Women's Basketball program will play at Southwest Baptist (Mo.) in the final conference game before the semester break on Saturday in Bolivar.

Truman State and Drury are the only two GLVC teams unblemished through the first two weeks of league play with the Bulldogs sitting at 4-0 after most recently downing Illinois Springfield (86-79) and Lewis (Ill.) (71-65) on their recent road trip. The team is first in the conference in scoring at 80.6 points per game, first in shooting at 46% overall, first in assists at 16.1 per game and first in rebound margin at a plus-seven per outing.

Senior Hannah Belanger was named the GLVC Player of the Week following her performance last week. Belanger averaged 21.3 points in three games and has scored 20 or more points in seven of the ten games played this season. She leads the league in scoring at 22.9 points per game and is 10th in all of the NCAA Division II.  Belanger also passed Jennifer Perkins and Angie Gum to move into fifth place on the Bulldog career scoring list with 1,473 points in 88 games played.

Truman State has had the last two GLVC Players of the Week after Ellie Weltha earned the honor the previous week.

Southwest Baptist halted a four-game losing streak with a 59-47 non-conference victory over Missouri Baptist on Tuesday night. The Bearcats dropped each of their four conference games to Missouri S&T, Missouri-St. Louis, Maryville and McKendree. SBU has had 16 players register points this season led by Kelsey Blakemore (8.9) and Emma Perry (8.4). The Bearcats are second to the Bulldogs in rebound margin at +4.2 per game with sophomore Claudia Vanzant third in the league at 7.9 boards per game.

Against Southwest Baptist:

The Bearcats connected on 10-of-15 shots in the fourth quarter and stopped Truman State's nine game winning streak over Southwest Baptist in a 75-52 win in Bolivar last February. Truman hit just two of 20 three-point attempts as Ellie Weltha was the only Bulldog in double-figure scoring at 17 points. Kyleight Vaught and Kelsey Blakemore each scored 16 for the Bearcats.

SBU leads the all-time series at 32-21 with the Bulldogs nine-game winning streak lately making a dent in that margin. The Bearcats won 10 straight over Truman from 2000 through 2004 and have won 16 of the 25 games played in Bolivar. 

Truman Tidbits:

Ellie Weltha is closing in on 900 career points. Weltha enters Saturday's game with 897 in 79 games played with a scoring average of 11.4. She recently moved into sixth place on the Bulldog career rebounding list with 686 boards. Next on her list will be teammate Katie Jaseckas, who finished with 754 rebounds at the conclusion of the 2021 campaign.

The Bulldogs already feature two players that have scored over 1,000 career points. Hannah Belanger has 1,473 points and sits in the fifth spot on the all-time Bulldog scoring list. She will next catch Amy Eagan at 1,527 points. Belanger's 224 three-pointers made is fourth all-time and six back of tying Candace McGee for third.

Alex Fanning has scored 1,112 points, the bulk coming at her previous stop of Benedictine (Ill.) College. She also has 937 career rebounds and 247 blocked shots. 

Gracie Stugart and Hannah Pinkston have completed the starting line up with those previously mentioned three players in all 10 games played this season. 

Stugart leads the GLVC in assist/turnover ratio at 2.69, is first in free throw shooting at 91.3% (21-23) and third in assists per game at 3.5 per outing. Stugart is averaging 6.6 points per game.

Pinkston has scored 6.7 points per game this season. Pinkston scored a season-high 21 in Truman's win at Upper Iowa on November 19th.

Emma Bulman and Claire Rake are the only two other Bulldogs to appear in all 10 games this season thus far. Bulman leads the bench in minutes per game at 19 and scores 7.4 points per game with a season high 14 coming against Illinois Springfield on Saturday.

Rake is third on the squad in three-pointers made with 13 this season and has connected from outside in eight of 10 games played so far. 

Nicole Dorn and Kaitlyn Patke have played in nine and eight games respectively. Dorn has made nine of 10 field goal attempts this season with five assists, three blocks and three steals. Patke averages 3.8 minutes per night with a pair of steals. 

The Bulldogs are 24-6 (.800) in GLVC road games under coach Theo Dean. They are 47-13 all-time in conference games under Coach Dean. 

Theo Dean is six wins away from tying Michael Smith for fifth on the Bulldog career coaching list. His .697 winning percentage ranks first out of the 11 all-time Truman State women's basketball coaches. 

Up Next: 

The sunshine state is on the horizon for the Bulldogs as they will play two games in Lakeland, Florida at the Florida Southern Christmas Classic. Truman will play the host Mocs of Florida Southern on Friday at 2 p.m. (ET) and Eckerd College on Saturday at 12 p.m. (ET).