LIBERTY, Mo. - The William Jewell women's basketball team travels to crosstown rival Rockhurst on Thursday night before returning the Mabee Center for the first time this season, hosting Drury on Saturday.
ADMISSION ❌
At this time fans are not permitted to attend games per Great Lakes Valley Conference policy in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This policy will be reevaluated in early January by the Council of Presidents.
BROADCAST 🎥
All games this season can be seen live, for free, on the GLVC Sports Network at
GLVCSN.com/Jewell.
LIVE STATS 📊
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Thursday vs. Rockhurst
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Saturday vs. Drury
SERIES INFORMATION
- Jewell leads the NCAA era series with Rockhurst, 12-6 and won both match ups last season by an average of 6.5 points. Over the course of the two games Kiara Bradley averaged 23 points, 9.5 rebounds, 3.5 assists and two steals. Macyn Wilbers also put in an average of 13 points.
- The Cardinals have beaten Drury just three times in the NCAA era and not since January 2015 when they upset the then-No. 14 ranked Panthers. In that game, Jewell 12 three point field goals while holding Drury to just two. In the most recent match up Bradley led the Cards with 13 points and seven rebounds as the team shot 41% from the field.
CARDINAL NOTES
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Senior Kiara Bradley is already a two-time All-GLVC honoree and is now closing in on her 1,000th career point, in just two seasons for the Cardinals. The Pella, Iowa native needs 117 points to surpass the 1,000 mark for her career and become just the second women's player to do so while playing entirely in the NCAA era, joining now-assistant coach Maddie Nelson. Bradley will also become the fastest player to reach this mark, surpassing Nelson, who joined the club after 94 games.
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Defense has been a defining piece of Jill Slominski teams over the last 25 years. Since 2015, the Cardinals have allowed, on average, less than 66 points per game, including giving up just 59.4 during the 2017-18 season. Through the first week of the season, Jewell is fourth in the league, allowing 69 points per night, behind only Southern Indiana, Truman and Drury. The Cardinals are allowing opponents to shoot just 23.5% from three point land, which is third in the GLVC.
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Kiara Bradley enters the week averaging 25.5 points and 11 rebounds per game which puts her at sixth and fifth respectively in the GLVC, making her the only player in the league to be in the top-6 in both categories.
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Ainsley Tolson has taken over the primary point guard duties and while she averaging 1.4 points less than last year at 8.0 points per game, she has nearly doubled her assist average through the first week of the season.
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Maddie Nelson makes her return to the Mabee Center and the Jewell bench this winter as an assistant coach after putting together one of the best playing careers in program history. A two-time All-GLVC performer, she is the NCAA era program leader in points, field goals, rebounds, offensive rebounds, game, starts and minutes. As a senior, she led all NCAA-II players, averaging more than 38 minutes per game.
ABOUT ROCKHURST
- Rockhurst enters the week at 1-1 on the season after a 70-61 win at McKendree.
- The Hawks are led offensively by sisters, senior Daly Sullivan and freshman Keegan, who average 13.5 and 13.0 points per game, respectively. Newcomer Monika Faerber is tied for eighth in the GLVC with 10 rebounds per game for the Hawks who are who are sixth with 38 per night.
- The Hawks have had to replace all five starters from last season, including two-time All-GLVC performer Madeline Ronshausen to graduation as well All-Freshman Team member Paige Pendley who transferred.
- Rockhurst is led by Larry Park, now in his 12th season.
ABOUT DRURY
- The No. 1 ranked team in the nation (D2SIDA), Drury enters the week riding a 33 game win streak and 67 regular season game win streak.
- Gone from last season is 2019 National Player of the Year Hailey Diestelkamp and three-time GLVC Defensive Player of the Year Daejah Bernard, along with head coach Molly Miller who has moved on to Grand Canyon University (DI) but the Panthers do return two-time first team All-GLVC honoree Paige Robinson, the reigning GLVC Player of the Week, who last weekend scored her 1,000th career point in just her 68th career game.
- Drury got a boost from Division I transfer Katie Kirkhart from Oral Roberts who has put in 12 points per game through the first two contests.
- Seniors Azia Lynch and Payton Richards also take on a bigger role this season, both averaging in double figures.
- The Panthers are led by first year head coach Amy Eagan, who served as an assistant coach for Drury last season. She previously spent six seasons at Truman State where she is all-time wins leader (111-62).
