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KIRKSVILLE, Mo. – The traditional Thanksgiving week stop for the Bulldog Women's Basketball team followed by the start of Great Lakes Valley Conference play will highlight this week for the Truman State Bulldogs.
Truman State will travel to Springfield, Missouri to play in the Drury Thanksgiving Classic on Tuesday and Wednesday before heading to McKendree to open up GLVC action on Saturday afternoon. The Bulldogs will get reacquainted with Lincoln (Mo.) University on Tuesday as the Blue Tigers will face the Truman State for the first time since 2013. The two teams will then play conference games starting next year as Lincoln joins the GLVC.
On Wednesday, the Bulldogs square off against Davenport (Mich.) out of the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletics Conference. The Panthers will first play the host Drury Panthers on Tuesday. Truman beat Davenport in their only meeting with each other back in 2018, also in the Drury Thanksgiving Classic 81-66.
This will be the fifth year out of the last six that Truman has made Springfield their Thanksgiving week stop and sixth since the 2016-17 season. The team is 4-6 in games played in the tournament having split games in four of the tournaments and going 0-2 in 2021-22.
Truman went 1-1 in their recent home stretch with an 83-59 win over Winona (Minn.) State on Friday evening but lost a heart breaker at the buzzer to Concordia-St. Paul (Minn.) 74-72. Against the Warriors, Truman fell behind 7-3 early but closed the first quarter on an 11-2 run to take a 10-point lead. The advantage swelled to 15 in the second before the Warriors made a push just before half.
Claire Rake stymied that run with back-to-back three-pointers to end the half and Truman then rolled in the second for the victory.
Ellie Weltha finished with 18 points while Rake scored 17.
Less than 24 hours later the team was back on the court against Concordia and again fell behind early 8-0. Only this time, the Golden Bears maintained the lead nearly throughout the game.
Molly Joyce knocked down a pair of free throws with just over a minute left in regulation to give Truman their first lead of the game at 72-71. Concordia made one of two freebies on their next possession to tie the game and each team had turnovers in the final minute. The Bulldogs had the last possession and a pass was picked off then raced down the floor for the winning jumper at the free throw line as time expired to give Concordia the win. Rake and Weltha each finished with 15 each and
Ainsley Tolson added 14.
Ellie Weltha leads the team in scoring and rebounding through four games at 18.5 points and 8.8 rebounds. She has scored in double-figures in each of the four games with a high of 23 in the opener against Ursuline (Ohio). She is shooting 65% from the field with just seven misses from inside the arc. Weltha has six blocked shots.
Claire Rake is the leading three-point shooter with 12 makes out of 26 attempts for a 46.2% shooting percentage from distance. She is also the leader in minutes played thus far with 117.
Ainsley Tolson is the team's assists leader with 22 dimes so far for a 5.5 per game average. She is also the leader in free throws attempted with 23 having made 21 of them. She in nearing 500 career free throws made following her stops at William Jewell, Baker and Avila. Tolson has the most points of any active player on the roster with 1,466 in 109 career collegiate games played.
Bailey Kliewer is one game ahead of Tolson for most experience on the floor with 110 games played. She played her first four years at Rogers (Okla.) State where she amassed over 1,000 points. She sits at 1,100 career points with an 8.8 per game mark in her first four games as a Bulldog.
Emma Bulman has completed the starting lineup with the previously mention four players and has averaged 3.9 points per game during her Truman State career. Her career high in points is 14 scored at Illinois Springfield last December.
Four other Bulldogs have played in all four games highlighted by freshmen
Lexie White and
Molly Joyce and joined by
Maddie Niemeier and
Gracie Neff. White has averaged 5.8 points and Joyce 5.3 points in their first month as Bulldogs.
As a team, Truman is shooting 47% overall and scoring 74.3 points per game while opponents are shooting 39% overall and averaging 66.8 points. The Bulldogs are making 7.5 three-pointers per game, 17.3 free throws per outing, 16.5 assists, 6.5 steals and 4.5 blocks.
Theo Dean is in his fifth season at Truman State and has a 77-36 record. He is currently fourth on the all-time wins list at Truman State and is 18-18 in non-conference Division II games played.
About The Opponents:
Lincoln is 2-1 on the season with bookend wins over Arkansas-Monticello 77-70 and Baptist Bible 101-59. Their loss came to Southern Arkansas 81-62. Ashlyn Alloway leads the team in scoring with 20 points per game. The Blue Tigers finished 7-21 last season.
Davenport is 1-3 out of the gate including two losses to GLVC opponents Missouri-St. Louis and Maryville. The Panthers have struggled scoring with a 51.8 points per game mark while shooting only 34% from the field and 20.8% from outside. Lillee Gustafson leads the team with 12 points and 10.5 rebounds per game. Davenport was also 7-21 last year.
Up Next:
The Bulldogs will start Great Lakes Valley Conference action this weekend as the women's side of the league voted to increase the number of conference games by two more over the men's side. Truman will face McKendree on Saturday at 1 p.m. then host Lewis at home at 5:15 in single header games.
