KIRKSVILLE, Mo. –  The Truman State Women's Basketball team will venture into Illinois for a pair of Great Lakes Valley Conference games after Mother Nature wreaked havoc during the previous weekend.
 
The Bulldogs (5-9 overall/2-2 GLVC) will first square off with the University of Illinois Springfield (2-11 overall/1-4 GLVC) on Thursday night starting at 5:30 p.m. then will head south to Lebanon, Illinois to face the McKendree University Bearcats (8-3 overall/4-1 GLVC) on Saturday afternoon.
 
Truman State came up just short in Friday's encounter with Missouri S&T falling 74-72 on a late basket by the Miners but "Winter Storm Blair" struck Missouri starting Saturday night and forced the postponement of Sunday's game with Lincoln (Mo.) University. The game was first pushed back to Monday, then to Tuesday before logistics dictated the game be moved to Monday, January 20^th in Pershing Arena.
 
The Prairie Stars broke their 11-game losing streak when the calendar turned to 2025. They won a non-conference game with St. Ambrose (Iowa) 72-44 then downed the University of Indianapolis on the road 67-58 on Sunday.
 
Truman State had one of its highest-scoring nights of the season against UIS last year, winning 98-83 in Kirksville. This avenged the earlier season loss in Springfield by a 75-56 margin. The Bulldogs have taken 15 of the 18 meetings between the two schools but two of the Prairie Stars wins in the series have come within the last five games.
 
Saturday's tilt will be against one of the three GLVC schools to earn a first-place vote in the preseason coaches poll. McKendree was picked third in the survey but garnered the attention of at least one league coach for their top choice. The Bearcats opened the season with seven straight wins but has dropped three of their last four games, including a conference game to league-leader Lewis on Sunday 84-80. McKendree will host William Jewell on Thursday night.
 
Like UIS, Truman State has had previous dominance over McKendree in the all-time series winning 20 of 23 games played however the Bearcats have won the last two over the Bulldogs. They swept the season series last year with a 76-71 win in Lebanon in late November of 2023 and won in Kirksville 74-61 on February 1^st.
 
The Bulldogs will be looking to snap a four-game losing streak over the holiday season that continued on Friday with a tough home loss to Missouri S&T. The Miners raced out to a 10-2 lead but a 9-0 run gave Truman the early lead.  A 13-0 run by Missouri S&T towards the end of the first quarter gave the Miners a 23-15 advantage.
 
The Bulldogs battled back and following a three-pointer by Tori Standefer with just over four minutes left to play, had a six-point lead at 65-59.  Truman led 72-69 as the clock turned under a minute to play. A clutch three-pointer by Addyson Kent knotted the game and following a miss on the offensive end, the Miners raced out with Chorus Davis making a layup with one second remaining for the win.
 
Jordan Cunningham led the Bulldogs with 25 points. Bryar Duwe scored 13, Lexie White added 11 with 10 rebounds and Molly Joyce added 10.
 
Cunningham continues to lead the team in most offensive categories with 17.4 points per game and has made 83 field goals with 20 from beyond the arc. She has a team-high 12 blocked shots and 22 steals. She is only five points shy of topping her single-season mark of 249 points set as a sophomore at Missouri Western in 2021-22 and is 68 points away from 1,000 for her collegiate career in 132 games played.
 
Joyce is second in scoring at 15.4 points per night and leads the team in triples made with 22. She has been to the free throw line a team-high 77 times already with an 81.8% success rate. She went to the line 87 times all of last season.  She has the Bulldogs single-game high this year in points scored with 34 against Ursuline (Ohio) which earned her the GLVC Player of the Week award. She is the reigning "Freshman of the Year" in the conference.
 
Duwe is the third Bulldog with at least 20 three-pointers made this year with 21 and is averaging just under nine points per outing. In 14 starts, Duwe has been in double-figures seven times with a high of 13 points coming twice, most recently Friday against Missouri S&T.
 
White has two double-doubles this season and has been in double-figures in three of the last six games. She had 11 with 10 rebounds against Missouri S&T and matched her season-high with 35 minutes played in the game. She has also played and started in all 14 games this season.
 
Freshman Katelyn Odem has started the last three games and has averaged over 20 minutes of playing time in the last four games. She had a season-high 13 points against Hawaii-Hilo on December 21. Odem scored eight points with two from outside against Missouri S&T in her last time out.
Coming off the bench in a majority of the games this season has been Gracie Neff, Emma Bulman and McKenna Williams.
 
The Bulldogs are averaging 70.4 points scored against 70.8 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 6.6 per night.
 
The team has lost the rebounding battle in 11 of the 14 games this season and are a minus 7.2 in rebounding margin. They have a positive turnover margin to their opponents at plus 2.6 with 14.2 turnovers made to 16.9 turnovers forced per night and average 8.1 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 .576 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:
Illinois Springfield is near the bottom of the conference in scoring (61.5 ppg) and defense (74.1 ppg). The Prairie Stars are led by Kayla Rice at 16.5 points per game and she had made 37 three-pointers thus far. She along with teammate Saharra Murphy are the top two players in the GLVC in steals with 71 between them in 13 games played.
 
McKendree won 20 games last season and is second in the GLVC in scoring offense with 79.9 points per game. Baylie Parks is a two-time recipient of the GLVC Player of the Week award this season, having won it most recently this past Monday.  Parks averages 17.6 points per game and 9.8 rebounds per outing.
 
Up Next:
Truman State will return home for three straight games. They will open the home stand with Upper Iowa on January 16, Lewis on January 18 and the make-up with Lincoln on January 20.