ST. LOUIS – The University of Missouri-St. Louis women's basketball embarks on a two-game road trip to Upper Iowa and Quincy this weekend. The Tritons meet the Peacocks on Thursday at 5 p.m. in Fayette, Iowa and conclude the road trip against the Hawks at 1 p.m. on Saturday.
UMSL enters play this week with a record of 18-3 overall including 14-1 in the Great Lakes Valley Conference and along with Drury on Saturday were the first two teams to punch their tickets to the GLVC Tournament to be held March 5-8 at the Mark Twain Building on the UMSL campus.
The Tritons are ranked first in the first edition of the GLVC Point Rating System (PRS) which determines the eight teams that make the conference tournament. UMSL has a rating of 4.53 and is 0.26 ahead of second place Drury.
The Tritons are coming off back-to-back home wins against UIndy and Lewis this past weekend.
Mara Rieder led the way recording back-to-back doubles as she averaged 22.5 points and 12.5 rebounds per game in the two victories. She scored 17 of her game-high 24 points in the third quarter of Saturday's 74-63 win over the Flyers.
Jayden Kuper averaged 15 points and five rebounds per game while
Morgan Ramthun chipped in with 10 points and eight rebounds per contest.
Anna Costa Riera dished out a career-high nine assists in Saturday's win over Lewis.
Rieder continues to lead the GLVC in scoring at 19.9 points per outing and in blocked shots with 2.2 per game. She is second in rebounding at 9.8 per contest while shooting 53.4 percent from the field which is fourth in the league.
Riera has distributed a league best 96 assists this season and is averaging 4.6 per outing which is tops in the league and she is second with a 2.0 assist-to-turnover ratio. Kuper is third in the conference in steals (2.4), sixth in rebounding (6.7) and seventh in scoring (14.2). Ramthun ranks third in field goal percentage (54.3) and tied for third in rebounds at 8.8 per outing.
About Upper Iowa – The Peacocks enter Thursday's game with a record of 13-10 overall including 9-6 in the GLVC and are ranked eighth in the GLVC's PRS. They've won five of their last six contests with the lone loss coming to Drury on a last second three-point shot.
Upper Iowa is one of the top three-point shootings in the conference making an average of 8.4 per game which is tied for first with Illinois Springfield and is connecting on them at a clip of 35.2 percent which is third in the league.
Ellie Foster and Ava Privet are first and third in the conference in three-point field goals per game at 2.6 and 2.4 respectively. Privet is shooting nearly 40 percent from three on the season while Foster is at 37.7 percent.
They've accounted for nearly 40 percent of the Peacocks scoring this season with Foster averaging 13.9 points per game while Privet is at 12.9 points per contest.
UMSL won the first matchup this season against Upper Iowa, 72-50 back on January 4.
About Quincy – The Hawks enter Thursday's game against Lincoln with a mark of 12-9, 9-5 in the GLVC and ranked seventh in GLVC's PRS. Quincy has won four of its last five contests and are coming off a 61-56 win at Missouri S&T on Saturday.
Katey Flynn leads the Hawks in scoring this season with an average of 12.9 per game and has handed out a team-high 66 assists. Hayven Harden is adding 10.3 points per contest and leads the squad with 22 blocked shots.
Turnovers have been an issue this season for Quincy as it's averaging 18.6 per outing and has a turnover margin of -2.14 which ranks next to last in the GLVC.
The Tritons defeated the Hawks 62-61 in overtime back on January 2.
