KIRKSVILLE, Mo. - While the spring semester has just begun on the Truman State campus, the women's basketball team will face two major road tests in this week's GLVC schedule. The Bulldogs travel to Missouri S&T on Thursday evening before heading to #2 nationally Drury University on Saturday afternoon.

The Bulldogs are winners in their last four games and are in second place in the GLVC standings, one game back of Drury. Truman swept the three-games over five days this past weekend with victories over William Jewell, Rockhurst and Southwest Baptist. Each game featured something for the record book as against the Cardinals, Truman shot 68% from the field and made 20 three-pointers while Hannah Belanger was a perfect 9-of-9 from the field. Against the Hawks, Belanger moved into third place on the all-time scoring list as she passed Felica Sutton's 1,578 point total. In Monday's win, Ellie Weltha became the 24th player to score 1,000 career points and also moved into fifth place on the career rebounding charts at the school.

Belanger garnered the GLVC Player of the Week honors for the second time this season and fourth for her career.

Missouri S&T is one win shy of matching last year's win total of 11, which was the most since the 2012-13 season of 16. The Miners are 6-3 in conference play, currently in fourth place and took two of three on their three game road swing last weekend. S&T defeated Indianapolis 72-67, lost to Lewis 72-59 and defeated Illinois Springfield 77-65. 

Saturday sees Truman facing their nemesis in Drury University. The Bulldogs broke through against the Panthers last season in Kirksville picking up their first win against Drury 67-66 behind late free throws from Ellie Weltha. Drury has reeled off 12 wins in-a-row and their only loss out of 17 games is to #1 Ashland (Ohio). The Panthers most recently won at Lewis 82-75, at Illinois Springfield 82-63 and at Quincy 87-49. They will host William Jewell on Thursday prior to Truman's visit.

Against Missouri S&T:

Truman is riding an 11-game winning streak over the Miners, which matches the longest streak of either school in the series that began in 1977. All 11 of those games have been played under the GLVC banner while Missouri S&T last win was a non-conference game as the Miners were transitioning into the GLVC from Truman's conference, the MIAA in 2006. 

The Bulldogs last season stormed out of the gates with a 21-5 first quarter and led by as many as 18 late in the third before the Miners scored the first 13 points of the fourth quarter and got as close as four late in the game. Katey Klucking led the Bulldogs with 14 points while S&T got 18 from Marta Dark.

Against Drury:

Truman won for the first time in 19 meetings with Drury when Ellie Weltha drained two free throws in the final seconds and a late shot attempt came up short in the Bulldogs 67-66 over then #1 Drury. Weltha and Allison Thomas scored 19 each while Drury was paced by Terrion Moore and Alana Findley with 13 each. The Panthers have won all 11 games played in Springfield. Truman is familiar with the O'Reilly Family Events Center as they have played 16 games on the court over the past five seasons. The Bulldogs are 5-11 in Springfield during that span with five games against Drury and 11 against other schools. The Bulldogs split games in November against #1 Ashland and Cedarville (Ohio). 

Truman Tidbits:

Hannah Belanger and Ellie Weltha are both in the top four in scoring in overall games among GLVC players and are two of the top three in nine league games. Belanger averages 20.1, good for first, and Weltha 18.0, good for third in conference while Weltha is first in boards at 10.2, tied with Missouri S&T's Alex Kerr and fourth in field goal shooting at 59%.

Belanger is sixth in Division II scoring at 21.6 per game and is eighth in Division II among active scoring averages at 17.0 per night. The Truman single-season scoring average mark 22.0 held by Georgia Mueller following the 2007-08 season.

Weltha became only the sixth player in Truman history to score 1,000 career points and pulldown over 750 rebounds. 

Gracie Stugart had a tremendous home stand dishing the rock. Stugart accumulated 37 assists in the four games to only eight turnovers. She had back-to-back 10+ assists games against Quincy (10) and William Jewell (12) and has 82 dimes in 17 games this season. She is first in conference-only stats in assists with 5.56 average and first in assist/turnover ratio at 5.0 where second place is 2.67.

Alex Fanning is 29 rebounds shy of 1,000 for her career. The graduate transfer has scored 1,168 points to go along with 254 blocked shots. At Truman this season, Fanning is averaging 8.4 points and 5.2 rebounds with a team-high 14 blocks.

Hannah Pinkston has been the fifth starter in all 17 games this season and averages 5.1 points per game. Her season and career-high in points is 21 against Upper Iowa.

Gracie Neff, Claire Rake and Emma Bulman have come off the bench in all 17 contests. Rake and Bulman each average 18 minutes per game with Rake tied with Weltha for second in three-pointers made with 27.

The Bulldogs are 24-7 (.800) in GLVC road games under coach Theo Dean. They are 51-14 all-time in conference games under Coach Dean. 

Theo Dean is one win away from tying Michael Smith for fifth on the Bulldog career coaching list. His .698 winning percentage ranks first out of the 11 all-time Truman State women's basketball coaches. 

Up Next:

Truman State closes out their January schedule with two more home dates. The Bulldogs will host Maryville on January 26 and Missouri-St. Louis on January 28 before finishing February with five of seven on the road.