KIRKSVILLE, Mo. - The Truman State women will close out the month of January with two homes games. The Bulldogs will host Maryville University on Thursday evening and Missouri-St. Louis on Saturday afternoon as they look to remain perfect at home this season.

Truman State has won all six games played in Pershing Arena this season and eight straight dating back to mid-February 2022. The Bulldogs sit at 13-6 overall and 9-2 in the Great Lakes Valley Conference, good for second place in the league standings and have a points-rating system number of 3.91, also second in the conference rankings. The PRS is used by the league to determine the qualification and seeding of the eight teams that will make the GLVC postseason tournament in March. The PRS is an average of points associated with wins and losses in home and away games weighted by a  team's conference winning percentage. 

Truman extended their winning streak to six games last Thursday with an 86-63 road win at Missouri S&T but saw it come to an end against #3 Drury 80-63 on Saturday. The Bulldogs led by nine early against the Panthers but a 15-1 run toward the end of the second quarter was too much to overcome. Hannah Belanger scored 18 points and Ellie Weltha added 16.

Maryville broke their four-game skid with a 78-68 home win over Lewis University on Saturday. The Saints are 11-7 overall and 6-5 in the GLVC under first year head coach and former Truman State graduate assistant Britta Hand. Returning all-GLVC Antoinette Mussorici is leading the Saints and sixth in scoring during conference games at 16.6 points per game. 

Saturday's opponent will see Missouri-St. Louis return to Pershing Arena. The Tritons have alternated wins and losses in their last four games with a home loss to Quincy last Thursday and a dominating 97-77 win over Illinois Springfield. Jalysa Stokes is the reigning GLVC Player of the Week after averaging 31.3 points in three games last week and scored a career-high 38 points against the Prairie Stars on Saturday. The Tritons will be at William Jewell on Thursday prior to Saturday's game.

Against Maryville:

The Bulldogs have won eight straight over the Saints with five of the games being decided by five points or less. Only twice in the last 11 meetings has the game been decided by 10 or more points with six games finishing with a margin of three points or fewer between the two schools. That criteria did not apply in their last meeting in January of 2022 in St. Louis as the Bulldogs won by 22 (79-57) for the second biggest margin in the series history. Truman knocked down 13 three-pointers and led 18-4 just six minutes into the contest. Katey Klucking led Truman with 17 points followed by Belanger with 16 and Weltha with 15.  

Against Missouri-St. Louis:

These two programs have had their share of hard-fought games with the Bulldogs pulling out wins in six of the last seven matchups. The Tritons only win during that span was their last visit to Kirksville in 2021, a 57-54 triumph. Last year in St. Louis, Hannah Belanger scored 23 points and Truman scored the final six points after UMSL had cut the lead down to one at 63-62 with 1:45 to play in a 69-62 win. The victory broke the school record for consecutive wins with nine, which would later move to 10-straight wins, and ended UMSL's 10-game winning streak.

Truman Tidbits:

The Bulldogs are the top shooting team in GLVC games this season at 48% overall and 40% from distance. Truman is the only team in conference play to make over 100 three-pointers (110) and average a league-best 10 three-pointers per game. Overall, the Bulldogs have connected 184 times from outside, 33 more than second place Illinois Springfield. 

Hannah Belanger has 62 three-pointers this season which is good for second overall in Division II. Ryan Weise of East Stroudsburg is the national leader with 65 made triples. Her 257 career three-pointers made is third on the Truman rankings and she is 20 behind the record of 277 held by Allie Norton and 12 back of Wendi Sobaski. 

The Bulldogs have nine players with at least one three-pointer this season and seven with 10 or more. Ellie Weltha and Claire Rake are tied for second in three-pointers made with 30 each.

Weltha has the league lead in rebounds this season at 9.6 per game and is tops in defensive boards with 145. Weltha is six back of Jennifer Perkins and fourth place on the Bulldog career rebounding chart.

Speaking of rebounding milestones, Alex Fanning is now 10 rebounds shy of 1000 for her career. The graduate transfer has 990 rebounds and 254 career blocked shots with the bulk coming at Benedictine (Ill.). Fanning averaged nine rebounds in the three games last week.

Gracie Stugart leads the GLVC in assists with nearly five dimes per game. Stugart has averaged 8.1 assists per game in her last six games and has also been active on the defensive end with 12 steals in her last five. 

Hannah Pinkston has been the fifth starter in all 19 games this season and averages five 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 19 contests. Rake and Bulman each average around 18 minutes per game.

The Bulldogs are 28-7 in GLVC home games under coach Theo Dean. They are 52-15 all-time in conference games under Coach Dean. 

Theo Dean is currently tied for fifth on the all-time coaching list at Truman State with Michael Smith and 68 victories. His .698 winning percentage ranks first out of the 11 all-time Truman State women's basketball coaches. 

Up Next:

The February schedule will see the team on the road for five of the seven games and that will start next week with their longest trip during conference play, to the University of Indianapolis on Thursday following by a game at McKendree on Saturday. The Bulldogs swept the two schools to start conference play in November with a 79-72 win against McKendree and an 86-75 victory over Indianapolis.