ST. LOUIS – The University of Missouri-St. Louis women's basketball team heads north this weekend to take on Upper Iowa and Truman State in a pair of conference matchups.
The Tritons (8-11, 6-7 GLVC) square off against the Peacocks (8-8, 5-7 GLVC) on Thursday at 5 p.m. at Dorman Memorial Gymnasium in Fayette, Iowa and then wrap up the trip against the Bulldogs (5-13, 2-10) at 1 p.m. on Saturday afternoon at Pershing Arena in Kirksville, Mo.
UMSL is battling with Quincy and Upper Iowa for the final spot in the Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament. The Tritons are ranked 10th in the first set of GLVC Point Rating System (PRS) rankings that determines the eight teams that will advance to the postseason tournament which will be held March 7-10 at Hyland Arena on the campus of Lindenwood University in St. Charles, Mo.
UMSL has 2.85 points in the rankings and trails Quincy who is in the eighth spot with 3.00 points while the Peacocks are currently ninth with 2.88 points but have played one fewer game than the Hawks and Tritons.
This will be UMSL's second meeting of the season with both Upper Iowa and Truman State. The Tritons defeated the Peacocks 74-60 at the Mark Twain Building on Nov. 27 and then rallied from a third quarter deficit to defeat the Bulldogs 61-60 three and a half weeks ago.
UMSL went 1-1 last weekend defeating Missouri S&T 72-47 last Thursday but came up short in a 67-65 loss to Maryville last Saturday afternoon.
Mara Rieder led the way for the Tritons averaging 18 points and nine rebounds in the two contests. She recorded her first double-double last Thursday with career-highs in points (18) and rebounds (10) while shooting 67 percent from the field.
Jalysa Stokes, the GLVC's leading scorer at 19.2 points per game, added 17 points, six steals and five assists last weekend.
Emerson Weller also had a career-high in scoring last Thursday with 14 points against the Miners.
About Upper Iowa – The Peacocks enter Thursday's contest having dropped three of their last four games including both games of its road trip to Kansas City last weekend. UIU opened the trip with 30-point loss at William Jewell last Thursday and then was beaten by Rockhurst 73-57 last Saturday afternoon.
Katie Tornstrom leads the team in scoring this season with an average of 17.1 points per contest and is joined in double figures by Mia Huberty with 14.8 points per game and Brooke Evenson is dropping in 12.3 points per outing, leads the team in rebounding with 7.6 boards per game and has 17 blocked shots. Huberty leads the team with 51 assists and Tornstrom has a team best 32 steals.
About Truman State – The Bulldogs enter Thursday's contest against McKendree 14th in the GLVC PRS with 2.08. They had lost 10 of their last 11 games before defeating William Jewell 61-58 last Saturday in Liberty, Mo.
Ellie Weltha leads the team in scoring and rebounding with 16.7 points and 9.0 rebounds per contest. She is the lone player averaging double figures in scoring. Claire Rake is contributing 9.5 points per outing while Bailey Kliewer and Molly Joyce are each averaging 8.7 points per game. Ainsley Toslon leads the team with 45 assists and Joyce has a team best 19 steals.
Up Next – The Tritons are back at home next weekend hosting Illinois Springfield next Thursday (Feb. 8) at 5:30 p.m. and Quincy on Saturday (Feb. 10) at 1 p.m.
