Women's Basketball 3/9/2014 8:53:00 PM

Bulldogs Head To Drury For Midwest Regional

2013-14 Truman Women's Basketball Game Notes:
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KIRKSVILLE, Mo. – Making their first trip to the NCAA Division II Women's Basketball Championship in 15 years and third overall, the Truman Women's Basketball team enters the Midwest Regional as the number eight seed and will play host and top-seeded Drury (Mo.) at 6:00 p.m. on Friday.

Game Coverage
Tournament games will be on the 104.7FM KRES and available free online through CentralMOInfo.com. Brad Boyer and Hank Janssen will call the action with a pregame show beginning 15 minutes prior to tip and will have Coach Amy Eagan's postgame comments at the end of the broadcast.

Live stats and free live video, is provided through the NCAA and will be available on the women's basketball schedule page on TrumanBulldogs.com

About the Bulldogs (22-8; 12-6 GLVC)
The Bulldogs won their first conference championship with a 58-45 win over Maryville (Mo.) University on Sunday to cap off three double-digit victories over a four-day span. It was the first Great Lakes Valley Conference team title for the school. With both teams fatigued, Truman outlasted the Saints in the final 10 minutes of the title game by holding Maryville to just three points.

Bianca Szafarowicz was named the tournament's Most Valuable Player and was joined on the All-Tournament team by fellow seniors Amy Briggs and Nicole Gloor. Szafarowicz and Briggs each averaged over 36 minutes in the three games in four days with Szafarowicz picking up seven steals, three blocks and averaged 7.7 rebounds per game. Briggs had eight three-pointers, nine assists, eight steals and averaged six rebounds per game. Gloor led the team in scoring at 18.3 points per game while shooting 60% (15-of-25) from the floor and 75% at the line (24-of-32).

Truman enters the Midwest Regional with a 22-8 record, matching the most wins in school history from the 1998-99 season. They have also made the most three-pointers in a season (229), free throws made and attempted (629/804) and best free throw percentage (78.2%). Amy Briggs has the most triples in a season with 78 and Nicole Gloor has the fourth most free throws made with 141.

An unprecedented five players average in double-figures in scoring with Briggs leading the way at 13.5, Allie Norton at 12.8, Gloor at 12.3, Szafarowicz at 12.1 and Strait at 10.4. The team's 79.2 points per game is the fourth best scoring average in school history and the 2,376 points scored is the second most scored in a season.

This is the 13th overall conference tournament appearance for the Bulldogs as they are the seventh seed, tying for sixth but losing a tie-break with the University of Southern Indiana. Despite the Bulldogs regular season home win over the Screaming Eagles, they were broke the tie by virtue of their road win at the University of Indianapolis while Truman lost at UIndy.

Truman is second in Division II in three-point field goal percentage (39.6%) and has the fifth best free throw shooting percentage at 78.2%

Truman vs. Drury (Friday, 6:00 p.m. – Springfield, Mo.)
Series History: The Lady Panthers have won all seven previous meetings with the Bulldogs but there was an eight-year gap from the 2006 meeting to this season's 93-86 Drury win in Kirksville on February 1. Allie Norton scored a career-high 26 points and the Bulldogs trimmed an 18-point margin down to five with 4:50 left but the Lady Panthers shot 56% from the field and got 27 points from Amber Dvorak and 22 from Bethanie Funderburk to end Truman's 23-game home winning streak.

Drury Last Time Out: Maryville upset the top-seeded Lady Panthers in the quarterfinals of the Deaconess GLVC Basketball tournament last Thursday 56-55. Samantha Robison's jump with a second left gave the Saints the victory. Maryville led most of the second half and was led Robison and Shelby Miller's 11 points. Drury got 17 from Sanayika Shields and 10 from Dvorak.

About the Lady Panthers: Drury was ranked sixth in last week's WBCA/USA Today Division II Coach's poll…Graduate student Amber Dvorak was a first-team all-GLVC player and named to the All-Defensive team…Dvorak averages 16.4 points in 18.4 minutes per game with a team-leading 53 blocks…Bethanie Funderburk was a second-team choice and has 39 three-pointers and averaging 13.3 ppg…this is Drury's 10th overall trip to the Division II tournament with last coming in 2012, they are 17-10 in the national tournament with a runner-up finish in 2004…Steve Huber is in his first season as the Lady Panthers Head Coach after spending seven years as the top assistant at Division I Creighton (Neb.).

Bulldog Notebook:

NCAA Tournament History:
This is the third NCAA appearance for the Bulldogs. They competed in the very first NCAA Division II Tournament in 1982 as 16 teams earned at-large berths. The Bulldogs were defeated by Chapman (Calif.) 49-46 as the Panthers scored with 28 seconds left and iced the game with a pair of free throws. The Bulldogs would still play another game that season as they also played in the AIAW Regional Tournament in Fargo, N.D. falling to Northern Iowa 68-60.

The Bulldogs were the sixth-seed in the 48-team tournament in 1999 hosted by Emporia (Kan.) State. Truman opened the tournament with a 94-79 win over Abilene Christian behind 25 points and eight assists from Amy Eagan. Truman avenged two previous losses to number two seed Missouri Western in dealing the Griffons a 78-68 win in the regional semifinals. Eagan scored 21 points and Wendi Sobaski tallied 18. In the championship game, Eagan (23), Kelli Kreuser (22) and Sobaski (21) had the points but Emporia State's Tara Holloway had 39 as the Lady Hornets buzzed past the Bulldogs 110-93.

Winning Season:
Truman's 22-8 record matches the most wins in school history from the 1998-99 season, the 31 games played will tie for most in a season by the Bulldogs. It is the third straight year that women's basketball will finish above .500. It is only the second time in program history that the team has had three straight winning seasons as the team strung together five from 1977-1982. Truman tied for most conference wins with 12 that was last was accomplished last season and again in 1999-2000.

The Bulldogs are 71-41 (.633) over the past four seasons, 45-32 (.597) in league games and 40-12 (.775) in games played in Pershing Arena during that span.

Season of Records:

The Bulldogs have broken last season's record for three-pointers in a year with 229. The previous record was 202 set in 28 games in 2012-13. Truman has 431 three-pointers over the past two seasons and are shooting 40.5% from three during that span.
The 579 three-point attempts are second single-season. The record is 607 set in 2007-08.
Truman has made 629 free throws out of 804 attempts, both school-records.
The 78.2% free throw percentage is currently the best single-season mark. Second is a 77.9% percentage set in 2009-10.
Truman's 79.2 scoring average is fourth best in school history behind the 1989-90 84.4 mark and the 1990-91 average of 81.9.
Allie Norton's and Courtney Strait's 88.9% is tied for seventh in free throw percentage with a minimum of 30 made in a season.
Amy Briggs established a new single-season three-point record with 78. The previous record was 76 by Susan Theroff during the 1990-91 season.
Briggs' 44.6% from beyond the arc is second behind Allie Norton's school record of 45.2% set last season.
Nicole Gloor is fourth in single-season free throws made with 141. The record is held by Amy Eagan at 177 in 1998-99.

Other Season Notables:
Truman set a school record with eight straight wins, all in conference, and most recently had a school-long 23-game winning streak, which was the fourth longest active streak in Division II.

The team has two games ranked in the top 10 in field goals attempted, (88 vs. Stephens; 75 vs. Grand Valley St.) three in three-pointers made (15 vs. Illinois Springfield; 13 vs. McKendree and 12 vs. Stephens) and eight of the top 10 in free throws made.

Courtney Strait, Allie Norton and Nicole Gloor added their names to the single-game record book in free throw percentage. Strait was 13-of-13 against Bellarmine (Ky.) last Saturday while Norton was 10-of-10 against Rockhurst and Gloor was 8-of-8 against Illinois Springfield to tie the school record.

Strait's 13 made free throws against Bellarmine were the sixth most made in a single-game. Strait made her first free throws of the game in the final seconds of regulation against the Knights and made 11 more free throws in the two overtime periods.

Norton has other single-game top 10 mentions this season in three-pointers made (6 vs. Drury) and Gloor in free throws made and attempted (12-16 vs. Pittsburg State).

Kasey Gassensmith and Bianca Szafarowicz both have top 10 games in field goal percentage with a minimum of eight made. Gassensmith went 9-of-11 against Stephens (Mo.) College while Szafarowicz finished 8-of-10 against Southern Indiana. Szafarowicz had seven steals against Stephen's, which was good for a sixth place on the single-game list.

National Rankings:
Truman is second in the nation in three-point shooting percentage at 39.6%. They trail West Texas A&M (40.3%) for the top spot.

The Bulldogs are fifth in free throw shooting at 78.2% while St. Cloud (Minn.) State leads Division II with an outstanding 83.9%.

Truman is fourth in turnovers per game (12.3), 19th in three-pointers per game (7.6), 16th in scoring offense (79.2/g) and 16th in assist/turnover ratio at 1.14.

Amy Briggs is at 10th in three-point shooting at 44.6%. Catherine Noack of Bloomsburg (Pa.) leads Division II at 49.3% from outside. Allie Norton is 16th at 43.6%.

Courtney Strait is sixth in free throw shooting at 90.3% with the national leader being Danielle Flood of Minnesota-Duluth at 93.2%. Four Bulldogs are ranked in the top 200.

Career Milestones:
Nicole Gloor is Truman's active leading scorer with 1,076 points. She became the 18th player in Truman history to hit that 1,000 point mark. She is fourth on Truman's career lists in free throws made (337) and fifth in attempts (458). She is also the active leader in steals with 126 and blocks with 33.

Allie Norton has 240 assists for her career and has started and played in 84 of the possible 85 games during her career. Norton is first in career three-point percentage (43.0%), third in three-pointers made (198) and third in attempts (460). Norton is second in free throw percentage at 87.2%

Bianca Szafarowicz is the active career leading in rebounds with 506 and in games played at 107.

Amy Briggs is seventh in three-pointers made at 131 in her two seasons as a Bulldog. She is eighth in attempts with 313, second in percentage at 41.9% and sixth in assists average with 3.4 per game.

Courtney Strait has the top career free throw percentage with a minimum of 100 made. Strait is 117-of-129 (90.7%).

Trending:

Nearly 75% of Truman's scoring comes from five players. Kasey Gassensmith (5.5), Michalina Tomczak (5.4) and Megan Walsh (4.6) are the next three scorers for the Bulldogs this season.
Tomczak and Briggs have started each game this season with Szafarowicz starting 29 and Gloor 22. Gassensmith is the only other Bulldog to appear in all 30 games so far. Allie Norton missed her first game as a Bulldog against Quincy on February 27, breaking a streak of 80 consecutive games but returned the next game against William Jewell.
The largest deficit overcome this season by the Bulldogs is 12 points against Bellarmine and has overcome two 10-point deficits to Wisconsin-Parkside and William Jewell. The largest lead lost was eight to Missouri-St. Louis.
Szafarowicz has five of the Bulldogs' six double-doubles this season.
The Bulldogs have trailed at the half in 13 games and have come back to win five of them.
Truman averages 7.6 three-pointers per game with a season-high 15 against Illinois-Springfield and a low of three against Grandview (Iowa). They have made over 10 threes in a game seven times.
The Bulldogs are 54-10 (.843) in games decided by 10 points or more over the past four seasons and 20-2 this year.

Up Next:
If advancing, the Bulldogs will play the winner of the session's nightcap game between No. 4 seed Northern Michigan and No. 5 seed Quincy (Ill.). Northern Michigan won the GLIAC tournament crown while the Lady Hawks will be looking to avenge two double-digit losses to the Bulldogs over the past two weeks.

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