KIRKSVILLE, Mo. –  Two critical home games are on tap for the Bulldog Women's Basketball team as they will host Maryville (Mo.) on Thursday night and Missouri-St. Louis on Saturday in Pershing Arena.
 
The Saints and Tritons are two teams securely in the Great Lakes Valley Conference postseason tournament field and both provide the Bulldogs with opportunities to cash in with value points in the chase for a tournament slot for Truman State.
 
Maryville is sixth in the GLVC Points Ratings System with a 3.38 average. Their conference winning percentage is .562 so a victory at home over Maryville would bank the Bulldogs five points toward their ratings average. A loss would add just two points to Truman's rating.
 
UMSL has clinched a tournament spot and is fourth in the ratings at a 3.38. They have a .706 winning percentage and fall into the same point designation as Maryville.
 
Truman sits with a 3.06 rating and trails Upper Iowa (3.24) and McKendree (3.25) for one of the final spots in the tournament field. After this week, the Bulldogs two remaining games come against teams below them in the ratings. Indianapolis is below .500 in conference and William Jewell is below .250 in league play.
 
The Bulldogs fell to Missouri S&T 70-67 in overtime on Saturday, just short of a high-value win.  Molly Joyce gave the Bulldogs an eight-point lead with 7:25 left in regulation but a 9-0 run by the Miners turned the tables. With the score tied at 59, Joyce missed a short shot with nine seconds left and S&T after a timeout came up empty on a three-point try.
 
In their first overtime game of the season, the Bulldogs could not get in front and lost by three points. Joyce scored 32 points on 10-of-25 shooting, including three three-pointers and nine made free throws on nine attempts.
 
Joyce regained her lead on 30-point games among GLVC players with her 32-point outing on Saturday. She now has three such games this season and leads Upper Iowa's Mia Huberty by one. Baylie Parks of McKendree has the highest single-game total this season in the conference with 35 points against Maryville.
 
Joyce had her five-game double-figure scoring streak snapped on Thursday as the Bulldogs were in control early in a victory against Lincoln University.  The 32 points against Missouri S&T came in a season-high 41 minutes and on a season-high 25 field goal attempts.
 
Joyce is third in the league in free throw shooting at 84% and has been to the line 133 times with 112 connections.
 
Jordan Cunningham continues to lead the Bulldogs in scoring at 16.3 points per game and 17.6 in conference games. Her nine 20-point-plus games are tied for most in conference with Upper Iowa's Mia Huberty and Illinois Springfield's Kayla Rice. Cunningham is fifth in overall scoring and fourth in conference-only scoring among league leaders.
 
Bryar Duwe scored 17 points against last Thursday against Lincoln to match her previous high set the game before. After playing in just seven games as a freshman, Duwe has started all 26 this season and is averaging 9.0 points with 37 made three-pointers, tying Joyce for the team lead in that category.  She made four in a game against Quincy back on January 25.
 
Lexie White has started all 26 as well and has a pair of double-doubles this season. She had 12 points and 11 rebounds earlier against Rockhurst and 11 points, 10 boards against Missouri S&T. Her single-game high in points was 16 against Quincy. She has averaged 6.6 points overall and 7.4 in conference.
 
Katelyn Odem has started the past 15 games and has played in all 26. She is currently averaging 4.5 per night and has a single-game high of 13 coming against Hawaii Hilo on December 21.
 
Seniors Gracie Neff and Emma Bulman are the other two players that have played in each game this season. Both bring over 200 combine games experience to the team. Neff is 22 assists shy of 400 for her collegiate career and has 215 in her 84 games with Truman State. Bulman climbed over the 500-point mark (507) and has added 27 blocks and 49 steals in 110 games.  
 
Tori Standefer, in her first season as a Bulldog and third as a collegiate, has played in all 16 GLVC games and has averaged 6.1 points in each. Standefer scored a season and career-high 15 points in the January 30^th game against Rockhurst and has made 12-of-28 three-point attempts. 
 
Truman State owns a 17-6 record over Maryville all-time but five of the six Saints wins have come in Pershing Arena. That was the case last year when Maryville came to Kirksville in their only meeting and downed the Bulldogs 79-65. All five Saints' starters scored in double figures led by Haidyn Pitsch with 20 points and a double-double from Karlee Feldman with 11 points and 15 rebounds.  Molly Joyce scored 16 points for the Bulldogs.
 
Truman and Missouri-St. Louis has a history dating back to the 1976 season and the Bulldogs hold a 26-22 advantage in the all-time series. The Tritons have won three of the last five meetings and swept the two games played during the 23-24 season. They won by one 61-60 in St. Louis and then won going away 80-61 in Kirksville last February.
 
Up Next:
A split weekend will close out the 2025 regular season next week. The Bulldogs will travel on Thursday to the University of Indianapolis and return back to host William Jewell for Senior Day next Saturday.