ST. LOUIS – The University of Missouri-St. Louis women's basketball team returns home this week for a pair of games against Quincy and Illinois Springfield. The Tritons will take on the Hawks this Thursday (Jan. 19) at 5:30 p.m. and the Prairie Stars at 1 p.m. on Saturday (Jan. 21) afternoon. Both games will be at the Mark Twain Building.

UMSL (6-9, 4-5 GLVC) is coming off a road trip where it won two of three contests. The Tritons began the trip last Thursday holding off a fourth quarter to defeat McKendree 60-55 then dropped a 58-53 decision at Indianapolis last Saturday before finishing the trip rallying from an 11-point first half deficit to defeat Lewis 84-81 in double overtime on Monday afternoon.

Jalysa Stokes, the team's leading scorer on the season, averaged 19.3 points per game on the road trip highlighted by a career-high 29 points on 12-of-28 shooting in the win over the Flyers. Amaya Blake averaged 17 points per contest on the trip including a career-high 27 points on Monday on 12-of-16 shooting.

UMSL is tied for sixth with Indianapolis and McKendree in the first GLVC Points Rating System (PRS) of the season that was released on Saturday evening. The PRS is used to qualify and seed the league's 13 teams for the 2023 GLVC Women's Basketball Tournament.

About Quincy – The Hawks enter Thursday's contest with a record of 7-10, 3-6 GLVC and are coming off a home stand in which they went 1-2. They dropped the opener to Rockhurst 68-60 last Thursday, then defeated Southwest Baptist 63-59 on Saturday before losing to second ranked Drury 87-49 on Monday evening.

Quincy is led in scoring by Beth Matas Martin whose averaging 13.5 points per game and also leads the team with 60 assists. Sarah Nelson is contributing 12.3 points per outing while Cymirah Williams leads the team with 7.5 rebounds per contest. Emma Knipe has a team best 19 steals.

The Hawks are averaging 64.7 points per game while allowing 65.5 per contest. They're shooting 40 percent from the field, 33 percent from beyond the arc and 73 percent at the charity stripe. They're outrebounding their opposition by two rebounds per game and are forcing nearly 16 turnovers per contest.

About Illinois Springfield – The Prairie Stars enter Thursday's game at Maryville with a record of 1-16, 1-8 GLVC and have lost three straight. UIS fell at home over the weekend to Southwest Baptist 72-65 last Thursday, to Drury 82-63 on Saturday and dropped a 77-65 contest against Missouri S&T on Monday afternoon.

The Prairie Stars are averaging 67 points per outing but giving up 81 points per game. They're shooting 39 percent from the field including 29 percent from three and 75 percent at the foul line. They're being outrebounded by 10.4 rebounds per game this year and have turned it over an average of 15 times per game.

UIS has four players averaging double figures in scoring and are led by Ariyah Douglas with 16.4 per contest. Liz Uhl, Brianna Zajeck and Ava Bardic are averaging 13.8, 13.4 and 11.1 points per game respectively. Ivey Schmidt leads the team in rebounding with 5.7 per contest. Saharra Murphy leads the team with 50 assists and 27 steals.

Series History – UMSL trails the all-time series against Quincy 33-29 but has won six of the last seven meetings. The Tritons defeated the Hawks 58-37 last season at the Mark Twain Building.

UMSL leads the all-time series with Illinois Springfield 16-4 and has won four of the past five contests. The Tritons won both meetings last season defeating the Prairie Stars 65-51 in Springfield, Ill., and 53-51 in the quarterfinal round of the GLVC Tournament.