ST. LOUIS – The University of Missouri-St. Louis women's basketball team returns to action this weekend as it travels to William Jewell and Truman State for a pair of Great Lakes Valley Conference contests. The Tritons face the Cardinals this Thursday at 5:30 p.m. in Liberty, Mo., and then will head to Kirksville on Saturday to take on the Bulldogs at 1 p.m.
UMSL is coming of a 97-77 win over Illinois Springfield last Saturday in which it recorded season-highs in points, field goals made (32), free throws made (25), field goal percentage (64 percent), three-point field goal (72.7 percent) and assists (13).
Jalysa Stokes scored a game and career-high 38 points in that contest while making a career-high six three's and matched her career-high with 12 made field goals. Her performance on Saturday capped a week in which she averaged 31.3 points, 4.0 rebounds, 3.3 steals and 2.0 assists per game. She was honored on Monday with the conference's Player of the Week award. Stokes is currently second in the GLVC averaging 17.5 points per game.
Kiara Stewart is closing in on another milestone as she approaches 1,000 rebounds for her career. She currently has 945 rebounds which is third all-time in school history. Stewart is looking to become the third player in school history to score over 1,000 points and grab over 1,000 rebounds in her career. She would join Tammy Putnam (1988-92) and former teammate
Alex LaPorta (2017-22) as the only ones to accomplish that feat. Stewart's 1,102 points is currently eighth best in school history. She is third in the conference in rebounding at 9.1 per contest.
About William Jewell – The Cardinals enter Thursday's contest against UMSL with a record of 4-17 overall and 2-9 in the GLVC. They've lost five straight and nine of their last 11. They dropped both of their games last weekend at second ranked Drury 84-54 last Thursday and then at home to Southwest Baptist 68-53 on Saturday afternoon.
William Jewell is averaging 59 points per game while shooting 36 percent from the field, 30 percent from three and 71 percent at the charity stripe. It is being outrebounded by an average of nearly seven rebounds per game and is turning the ball over an average of 16.5 times per outing.
Emree Zars leads the team in scoring and rebounding with 10.0 points and 6.3 rebounds per game. Ayden Shannon has team-highs in assists (33) and steals (24) and is contributing 9.6 points per contest. Kate Hillyer and Chloe Franks are averaging 8.3 and 8.2 points per contest respectively.
About Truman State – The Bulldogs enter Thursday's game against Maryville with a record of 13-6, 9-2 GLVC and have won five of their last six contests. They had their five-game winning streak snapped last Saturday in an 80-63 loss at No. 2 Drury.
Truman is averaging 77.3 points per game this season which ranks second in the GLVC but is giving up 72.5 points per outing. It leads the conference in field goal percentage connecting on nearly 47 percent of its attempts and is second in league in three-point field goal percentage at 37.6 percent. It also leads the league in assists with 16.2 per contest.
Hannah Belanger leads the Bulldogs and the GLVC in scoring at 22.0 points per game while Ellie Weltha is averaging 16.5 points and leads the league in rebounding with 9.7 per contest. Gracie Stugart has handed out a team-high 94 assists and has 25 steals.
Series History – Thursday's game marks the 15th meeting all-time between the Tritons and Cardinals with UMSL having won 10 of the first 14 contests. The Tritons have won the past six games in the series including a 70-44 win at William Jewell last season.
Truman leads the all-time series against UMSL 26-19 and have won five of the last seven meetings. The two sides split last season with the Tritons winning 57-54 in Kirksville on Dec. 2, 2021 and the Bulldogs returned the favor winning 69-62 at the Mark Twain Building on Jan. 20, 2022.
