The following "Starting Five" points offer a quick look inside GLVC women's basketball action this week:
GLVC SPORTS NETWORK (GLVCSN): All GLVC home games are available for free on GLVCSN.com, the GLVCSN iOS and Android mobile apps, and GLVCSN OTT apps on Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, and Android TV.
[1 // seven start glvc play unbeaten]
Southern Indiana remained unbeaten with two wins to
open the GLVC slate against Lewis (67-56) and Indianapolis (73-66) last wekk, the latter a road victory that came after a nine-point first-quarter deficit and a monster performance from reigning
GLVC Player of the Week Morgan Dahlstrom, who scored a career-high 35 points. The Screaming Eagles happen to be idle this entire week, not playing again until Dec. 16. Drury, Rockhurst and William Jewell also won both of their openers, while Illinois Springfield (72-46 at Missouri S&T), Truman State (71-66 vs. Missouri-St. Louis) and UW-Parkside (76-71 vs. Indianapolis) got wins in their lone Conference contests last week. Additionally, Lewis earned a league win in its second GLVC game against Bellarmine, 81-55. Looking ahead to the
second week of league play, teams will be facing off against one another on Thursday, as it’s the only day for Conference action this week. Bellarmine (3-3, 0-1 GLVC) will host UW-Parkside (4-7, 1-0), No. 7 Drury (8-1, 2-0) visits Quincy (1-5, 0-2), Illinois Springfield (6-1, 1-0) welcomes Rockhurst (6-2, 2-0), Indianapolis (1-7, 0-2) travels to Lewis (6-3, 1-1), Missouri S&T (4-3, 0-1) will meet Maryville (3-3, 0-2) in St. Louis, Truman State (5-2, 1-0) hits the road to McKendree (1-4, 0-1) and Missouri-St. Louis (3-3, 0-2) will host William Jewell (4-4, 2-0). On Monday, however, Truman State opened the week by hosting non-conference opponent Hannibal-LaGrange in an 80-23 win before both Lewis and Drury won non-league road contests Tuesday, respectively, at St. Francis (59-46) and Harding (65-57). Friday, Saturday and Sunday will see four more games out of Conference play to close the week, as Quincy, Bellarmine and Indianapolis host three of those, while UW-Parkside visits Division I Northern Iowa.
[2 // one of 20]
Southern Indiana is off to its best start since the 2012-13 season when it won its first 11 games, and this is the fifth-best start to a season in program history. In addition, the Screaming Eagles are one of 20 teams in NCAA Division II that have not yet lost a game this season. Carson-Newman is the only team at 9-0, while USI joins seven other teams at 8-0 with 10 teams holding a 7-0 record and one sitting at 6-0. Leading the Screaming Eagles on this trajectory have been a trio of seniors, including Morgan Dahlstrom, Kaydie Grooms and Randa Harshbarger. Grooms (18.5) and Dahlstrom (18.3) lead the way with their scoring averages, while junior Kacy Eschweiler is the only other player averaging double figures with her 10.0 points per game. Dahlstrom has a team-best .602 shooting percentage and 9.8 rebounds per game average, while Grooms’ .424 clip from three-point range is a team-high. Harshbarger has collected a team-high 32 assists and 30 steals so far this season (t-4th in NCAA), including a GLVC-best 3.75 steals per game.
[3 // two teams ranked in wbca poll]
Drury improved its position in the top 10 of the
WBCA Coaches Poll with a bump up from No. 9 to No. 7, while Southern Indiana finally cracked into the rankings. Last week, USI was the first team receiving votes just outside the poll and have entered this week at No. 22.
[4 // underclassmen over performing]
Nine of 13 individual
GLVC statistical categories are led by either freshmen or sophomores. Missouri-St. Louis freshman Alex LaPorta is tops in all three rebounding categories with an 11.3 average per game along – 15th-best in NCAA D-II) with 6.8 on defense and 4.5 on offense (t-12th in NCAA). She’s also tied for 11th in the nation for her five double-doubles this season. Truman State newcomer Katie Jaseckas is also a multi-category frontrunner with her perfect 13-for-13 clip from the foul line and 65.9% shooting from the field (27-for-41). Also shooting well from long range is Bulldog teammate Tiffany Davenport, a freshman, who has hit six of her nine attempts (.667). Illinois Springfield sophomore Katelyn Rosner is atop the blocked shots list with 2.7 per game and 19 total for the season, while classmate Mary Barton of Maryville leads the league with her 2.4 assist-to-turnover ratio thanks to 24 dimes and 10 turnovers. Barton can also boast the highest average minutes played per game with 37.17 in six games for a total of 223 minutes, which ranks eighth in D-II.
[5 // national stat leaders]
Illinois Springfield (6-1) is still the NCAA Division II leader with 8.3 blocks per game, having grabbed a total of 58, which is tied for third most. Also ahead of all other D-II teams is UW-Parkside with its 325 3-point field goals attempted, while Southern Indiana is tied for first in the nation with its 100.0 won-lost percentage. Other top-five stats include UIS’s total blocks (58, t-3rd) and turnover margin (10.43, 5th), along with UWP’s 464 rebounds (3rd) and 88 three-point field goals made (5th). Individual national leaders include just one: Lewis junior Jessica Kelliher, who has made the more field goals than any other player with 88. She also happens to be third nationally with 24.8 points per game. Two others find themselves in the top five among D-II student-athletes, including USI’s Randa Harshbarger with her 30 steals (t-4th) and Missouri-St. Louis’ Sammie Sproul’s 53.1 percent shooting from long range.