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 // the week ahead]
GLVC women's basketball action
resumes this week with the same Thursday/Saturday format, as only three weeks remain in the regular season. Rockhurst sits at No. 9 in the Point Rating System but will have a chance to move into the top-8 with a win over West leader Drury on Thursday, while McKendree could increase its seventh position in the rankings with a win over No. 5 Bellarmine, and No. 7 Truman could do the same with a victory at fourth-ranked William Jewell. The featured contest on Saturday will be Bellarmine at East leader and PRS No. 1 Southern Indiana.
[2 // last week’s review]
On Thursday
a week ago, Central Division leader Missouri-St. Louis picked up a big victory at then-East leader Lewis, 66-63, to snap the Flyers previous league-best, 10-game win streak. Indianapolis fell to McKendree, 63-53, but senior Martha Burse scored a game-high 31 points to earn her 1,000th point as a Greyhound. Southern Indiana beat Maryville Thursday, too, and took over sole possession of first in the Point Rating System. On Saturday, Drury won by a large margin, 103-57, at Missouri S&T for a GLVC season-high scoring output, attempting a program-record 40 three-pointers. The Panthers had five score in double figures in that game, while Maryville also had five do the same in a 70-63 win at UIndy.
[3 // drury, usi move up in wbca poll]
Drury (20-2) again made a one-spot jump this week in the
WBCA D-II Top-25 Poll, going from No. 9 to No. 8, following two league wins over Truman State (72-46) and Missouri S&T (103-57). The Panthers are now on a five-game win streak. Southern Indiana (19-2) also went 2-0 in league play a week ago with wins over Maryville (75-50) and Quincy (85-53), and also rose one place, going from No. 16 to No. 15. The Screaming Eagles' win streak is at a league-best eight games.
[4 // first weekly honor]
While there were many notable performances this past week, it was Missouri-St. Louis’ Jordan Fletcher who was chosen as the
GLVC Player of the Week for her combined efforts in two Conference wins. The redshirt-senior averaged 20.5 points and 7.0 rebounds, shooting 62.5% (15-for-24), helping UMSL to its sixth and seventh consecutive victories. She scored 16 points on 5-of-7 shooting from the field at Lewis and 6-of-7 at the free throw line, adding six rebounds and a steal. The single takeaway was huge, as it came on an inbounds play with 18 seconds left and the score tied 63-63, ultimately leading to the game-winner to snap the Flyers’ 10-game win streak for their first home loss this season and the Tritons first win in Romeoville since 2002-03. Fletcher also tallied a season-high 25 points at UW-Parkside on 10-of-17 shooting with eight rebounds, including her 600th career board to become just the third in program history to accomplish the feat. This was her first career weekly nod.
[5 // top-5 in the nation]
After the most recent release of the NCAA Division II statistical report, three teams and three individuals are ranked among the top-5 statistical leaders. Drury has forced the third-most turnovers (25.14) per game, while Maryville and UW-Parkside both come in at No. 4 for fewest turnovers (244) and three-point field goals attempted (666), respectively. League individuals who are among the nations best include D-II leaders Martha Burse and Jessica Kelliher. Indianapolis’ Burse has recorded the most field goals attempts (455), while Lewis’ Kelliher leads the country in both most field goals made (222) and scoring average (24.9). The Lewis junior further impresses with her No. 2 spot for field-goal percentage (66.3) and free throw attempts (178). Burse additionally is second for steals with 81 and fifth in steals per game (3.52). Lastly, Maryville’s Mary Barton has averaged 37.47 minutes per game for the fourth-most in the division. A complete list of stats and rankings can be found on
NCAA.org.