SETTING THE SCENE
The UMSL women's basketball team opens the 2015 Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament by hosting No. 9 seed Bellarmine on Sunday in one of four first round games. The Tritons, seeded No. 8, are hosting a first round game for the second straight year. The winner will advance to the quarterfinals at Family Arena in St. Charles, Mo., where the tournament will continue March 6-8.

UMSL IN THE GLVC TOURNAMENT
UMSL is 4-9 in GLVC Tournament games. The Tritons were the No. 5 seed last year and defeated No. 12 seed Rockhurst in a first round game, 73-41, before falling to No. 4 seed Indianapolis, 78-74, in the quarterfinals.

UMSL and Bellarmine have only met once in GLVC Tournament play with the Knights garnering a 64-62 win in the 1999 semifinals.

EARLIER THIS SEASON VS. BELLARMINE
UMSL and Bellarmine met just two weeks ago on February 14 with the Tritons posting an 80-59 victory in St. Louis. Senior Alexis Lawrence tied a career-high 27 points, equaling a career-high seven three-pointers in the win. UMSL shot 55.4 percent, including 63.3 percent in the second half in which the Tritons outscored the Knights, 48-32. The Tritons closed out the first half with an 11-3 run over the final five minutes to take a 32-27 lead into halftime after a first half which saw 10 score ties and nine lead changes. UMSL then scored six straight to open the second half and outscored the Knights, 13-2, in the first four minutes to take a 45-29 lead and  never looked back.

THE REST OF THE GLVC TOURNAMENT FIELD
Other first round games include No. 12 Saint Joseph's at No. 5 Quincy, No. 11 Indianapolis at No. 6 Truman State and No. 10 Maryville at No. 7 William Jewell. The top four seeds - No. 1 Drury, No. 2 Lewis, No. 3 Southern Indiana and No. 4 UW-Parkside all received first round byes.

SIZING UP THE TRITONS
UMSL ended its regular season with a 13-13 record, including a 9-9 GLVC mark after dropping a 67-63 decision to visiting Maryville in the finale on Thursday night. The Tritons garnered the league's No. 8 seed and secured up the final GLVC Tournament first round home game over Bellarmine (also 9-9 in GLVC play), by the common opponent-common site tiebreak against Quincy. UMSL earned an 80-75 overtime home win over the Lady Hawks on Feb. 19, while Bellarmine fell 86-83 on its home court to Quincy on Feb. 7.  

TRITONS AT HOME
UMSL is 9-3 at home this season and under third-year head coach Katie Vaughn is 28-9 in the Mark Twain Building.

STATISTICALLY SPEAKING
Senior Alexis Lawrence averages a team-best 14.0 points per game and has drained 87 three-pointers, while junior Kelly Kunkel follows with 12.0 points per game and also grabs 6.5 rebounds per contest. Senior Kelly McGovern leads the team with 4.0 assists, 7.1 rebounds and 1.8 steals per game. Senior Tierra Snow is shooting 61.9 percent from the field, while redshirt freshman Jordan Fletcher owns a team-best 31 blocks, which ties the sixth most in a single season at UMSL.

TRITON TIDBITS
- Senior Alexis Lawrence averages 3.35 three-pointers per game, which leads the GLVC and is fifth in NCAA DII. Her 87 three-pointers this season rank second on the single season charts, while her 38 percent shooting is sixth. Lawrence also ranks second all-time in program history with 219 three-pointers and is second in three-pointers attempted (613) and seventh in three-point shooting percentage (.357).
- Senior Kelly McGovern ranks fifth in program history with 320 career assists and is third in free throw percentage (80.1) and eighth in steals (121).
- Senior Tierra Snow's current career field goal shooting percentage of 56.9 is a program best, while her 61.9 percentage this season leads the GLVC and ranks second in program single season history.
- Junior Kelly Kunkel averaged a team-best 13.1 points in GLVC only games.

SCOUTING THE OPPONENTS
Bellarmine lost a 64-48 decision at Southern Indiana on Thursday night to end its regular season with a 14-12 record, including a 9-9 mark in the GLVC. The Knights have just one senior on their roster and their top three scorers are a freshman (Raven Merriweather, 9.8 ppg) and two sophomores (Whitney Hartlage, 9.8 ppg; Destony Curry, 9.7 ppg). Bellarmine is 15th in the GLVC in field goal percentage (37.8), but leads the GLVC in offensive rebounds (14.77 per game) and is fifth in steals with 9.08 per game.
 
SERIES HISTORY
UMSL is 9-20 all-time against Bellarmine, but has won three straight and four of the last five meetings.

LOOKING AHEAD
GLVC Tournament play continues with women's quarterfinal round games on Friday, March 6. Following Sunday's four first-round contests, the winners will be reseeded Nos. 5-8 and placed against the tournament's top four seeds. At that time, times for the four quarterfinals will also be announced. Top-seeded Drury earns the right to determine its 12-2:30-6-8:30 p.m. CT start time on Friday, while No. 2 Lewis will then select between the two remaining times in the opposite session. The No. 3 and 4 seeds will then be slotted accordingly.