KIRKSVILLE, Mo. –  Turning the calendar to 2025 and the Truman State Women's Basketball team sets their sights on the march through the Great Lakes Valley Conference continuing this weekend with a pair of league home games.
 
The Bulldogs are 2-1 in conference play with wins over Rockhurst and Southwest Baptist and a loss at Drury, all of which were played over a month ago.
 
Truman State will entertain Missouri S&T on Friday and Lincoln University on Sunday. The Friday game will be played after the men's tilt with the Miners, which will tip off at 3 p.m. while the Sunday game will be played at the traditional afternoon slot of 1 p.m to kick off the twinbill.
 
During their Christmas break, the Bulldogs traveled to Hawaii for the Big Island Classic. The number five ranked team in Division II, Fort Hays (Kan.) State downed Truman State 77-57 in the first game and the host school, the University of Hawaii at Hilo, defeated the Bulldogs 68-61.
 
The undefeated Tigers raced out to a 26-8 first quarter lead and never looked back in defeating the Bulldogs. Jordan Cunningham and McKenna Williams led the team with 15 points each and Bryar Duwe chipped in 11. Truman State struggled from distance, making three of 27 three-point field goal attempts on the evening.
 
Hawaii-Hilo put the Bulldogs behind early with 15 straight points and held on to win 68-61 on their home court. Molly Joyce was the leader in scoring for Truman State with 18 points while adding nine rebounds. Freshman Katelyn Odem, making her second straight start, scored a season-high 13 points and Cunningham added 12. It was again a struggle from long range for Truman State as the Bulldogs connected on only four of 21 three-point shot attempts in the contest.
 
Cunningham has been the Bulldogs leading scorer in seven games thus far and leads the team individually in scoring at 16.8 points, rebounding at 4.6, assists at 3.2, steals at 1.6, blocked shots with 11 and minutes per game at 33 this season. She has scored in double-figures in all but two games in her first season with the Bulldogs and has four 20-point or more games with a high of 27 against Southwest Baptist. In her five-year career, with the first four played at Missouri Western, Cunningham is nearly 1,000 points with 907 in 131 games played.
 
Molly Joyce has been the scoring leader in six games as a sophomore and has the top single-game mark of 34 points earlier this year against Ursuline (Ohio). Joyce has made and taken the most three-pointers by a Bulldog with 22 connections out of 77 tries. She is averaging 15.8 points per outing and has been in double figures in 11 of 13 games started. Joyce is the reigning GLVC Freshman of the Year and was the league's first recipient of the Player of the Week award this season.  Joyce just passed over 500 career points in 41 games as a Bulldog.
 
Bryar Duwe is third in active scoring at 8.6 per night and has started all 13 games this season. Duwe was in double-figures in the first four game of the year and has scored 10 or more points in six contests with a high of 13 against Winona State. Duwe has 18 three-pointers made.
 
Lexie White is the fourth player that has made all 13 starts. White played in the first 11 games as a freshman before having her season cut short. She averages 6.5 points and 3.6 rebounds per game and posted a season-high 15 points against Drury and 11 rebounds over Rockhurst this year.
 
Katelyn Odem stepped into the fifth starting spot in Hawaii after Mallory Ott had started the previous six games but left early against Drury on December 7^th. The freshman had seen action in the first 11 games before entering the starting lineup against Fort Hays State on December 19. She scored 13 points on 6-of-9 shooting with a three-pointer against Hawaii-Hilo in the Bulldogs last time on the court.
 
Emma Bulman, Gracie Neff and McKenna Williams have each been valuable off the pine for the team. Bulman gives the Bulldogs 18.5 minutes per night while scoring 3.4 points and adding 3.1 rebounds per contest.  She has played in 97 career games at Truman State and scored a career-high 18 points against McKendree last season.
 
Neff was the team leader in assists a season ago with 117 and has 355 helpers in 116 games throughout five seasons. Her last three years have been at Truman State after playing two years at Lindenwood.  She had 11 assists against Quincy in 2021 and her bench mark in points scored is 13 against Drury in 2024.
 
Williams has appeared in 12 games and scored a season-high 15 points against Fort Hays State while out in Hawaii. She started all 36 games last year at Rock Valley (Ill.) College and aided the Golden Eagles to a 34-2 record and a NJCAA Region 4 Championship. She averaged 8.8 points and 7.2 rebounds during that season.
 
The Bulldogs are averaging 70.2 points scored against 70.5 points allowed this year. They are shooting 41% overall from the field and 27% from three-point range. Truman State takes 41% of their shots from beyond the arc per game and makes 6.5 per night.
 
The team has lost the rebounding battle in 10 of the 13 games this season and are a minus 7.2 in rebounding margin. They have a positive turnover margin to their opponents at plus 2.3 with 14.3 turnovers made to 16.6 turnovers forced per night and average 8.3 steals per game.
 
Head Coach Theo Dean is in his sixth season at Truman State and is tied for third on the all-time wins list with 87 with John Sloop. His .580 winning percentage is only second to his predecessor Amy Eagan (.642).  Of his 87 wins, Dean has 64 GLVC victories which is only four behind Eagan for the program's record.
 
About the Opponents:
Missouri S&T was picked to finish just behind the Bulldogs in the league race by the coaches. The Miners accumulated 70 points to Truman State 75 points to rank 12^th in the preseason poll after an 8-22 overall record and 5-17 conference ledger.
 
The Miners are just one win shy of matching last year's win total and are off to a 7-2 start in 2024. They hold league wins over Lincoln and Upper Iowa but were defeated by Quincy. Of their nine games, eight have been played at home this season and the Miners have not been on the road for a game since the opener back on November 12^th.
 
Katelynne Roberts leads the team with 10.7 points per game with Addyson Kent connecting on the most three-pointers with 23. The Miners have an impressive scoring margin at plus 20.2 per game.
 
Lincoln will make their first trip to Pershing Arena as a member of the Great Lakes Valley Conference on Sunday. The Blue Tigers will be at Quincy to open 2025 on Friday.
 
The Blue Tigers last visit to Kirksville was in the 2013 campaign and joined the GLVC as a full-time member in July of 2024. They broke a 25-game losing streak to the Bulldogs in a non-conference tilt last year in Springfield, Missouri as part of the Drury Thanksgiving Classic. Lincoln tripped up Truman State 85-73.
 
Lincoln has struggled to a 1-9 start with eight straight losses. Their win came in the opener over Harris-Stowe (Mo.) 58-42. Their three conference losses entering the week have been at the hands of Southwest Baptist (102-67), Missouri S&T (70-49) and Upper Iowa (69-56).
 
Hanne Nybo and Ayreona Carter lead the Blue Tigers in scoring at 11.6 and 10.3 points per game respectively.
 
Up Next:
Truman State will be at Illinois Springfield and McKendree (Ill.) next week. The Prairie Stars are currently the only team in the GLVC without a victory while McKendree is tied with Lewis (Ill.) and Drury (Mo.) atop league standings at 3-0. Illinois Springfield will be on Thursday and Lewis on Saturday.