LIBERTY, Mo. - The William Jewell women's basketball team will head eastward this weekend as they get a rematch with the Tritons of Missouri-St. Louis before heading just across the state line to McKendree 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 again in February 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 📊
• Thursday vs. UMSL
• Saturday vs. McKendree

SERIES INFORMATION

• UMSL leads the NCAA era series 8-4, including an 86-58 win earlier this month. The Cardinals got off to a slow start, trailing by as many as 15 in the first quarter, and could not recover. Ainsley Tolson scored a career-high 20 points in the loss while Annemarie Boeh came off the bench to score 12. 
• This will be the first matchup of the season with the Bearcats as Jewell leads the series 5-2. The Cardinals fell to McKendree last season by a final of 78-74 but won the previous three meetings. Bailey Russell shined, scoring 22 points off the bench, hitting 5-of-7 three point attempts.         

CARDINAL NOTES

• The Cardinals are coming off a 51-46 loss to Truman on Saturday. Jewell got off to a strong start, leading 9-2 early, but Truman rallied. Both teams traded points for much of the next two quarters until the Bulldogs took a late lead to secure their ninth win. Jewell got 28 points from Kiara Bradley while holding Truman to their season-low in scoring. 
• The Cardinals got a boost down low last week with the return of Rachel Schon. The sophomore missed the first 10 games of the season due to injury but came back on Thursday against Maryville. She appeared in both games over the weekend, averaging four minutes, while scoring one point and grabbing one rebound and one steal. 
• While the Cardinals held Truman to a season low in scoring with just 51 points, they got just 46 themselves. Jewell was held to a season-low 29% from floor against the Bulldogs which is the lowest mark in exactly one year, January 23, 2020, when the Cardinals shot 26% against Maryville. Despite the low numbers on the offensive end, Jewell forced Truman into 17 turnovers, while grabbing nine steals and one block and held them to 37% from the field, their second-lowest mark this season.  
• The 51 points allowed to Truman gave Jewell back-to-back games where they held opponents to under 60 points, for the first time this season, as they also allowed Maryville only 59 on Thursday. The Cardinals have done this once in each of the past two seasons as well, with Bellarmine (47) and UIndy (56) on February 6 and 8, 2020 along with Kansas Christian (32) and Avila (58) in December 2018. Jewell will look to make it three in a row for the first time since holding Missouri S&T (54), Truman (49) and Illinois Springfield (59) under the mark in February 2018. 
• On Saturday, Sydney Offield pulled down nine rebounds while Kiara Bradley had six which pushed both players up a spot on the NCAA-era career rebounding chart. Offield now owns 459 career boards while Bradley follows close behind at 453, to surpass Chris Keys' (2013-17) 450.
• Kiara Bradley continues to hold the top spot in the GLVC with 89 field goals made. This total is also second nationally, two behind Findlay's Sydney Kin. The senior also added another double-double to her resume, putting her in a three-way tie for tops in the GLVC and fifth in Division II, alongside Truman's Katie Jaseckas and Missouri S&T's Alex Kerr. 
• For the first time in her career, Sydney Offield, played a full 40 minutes on Saturday. The redshirt senior pulled down a season-high nine rebounds. 
• Jewell will be one of the deepest teams in the GLVC this season with seven seniors, including three redshirt seniors, to go along with four other players who appeared in at least 20 games last year. The Cardinals graduated four, but only one of those players saw action in 10 games, with the rest out due to injury. 
• Jill Slominski is now in her 25th season at the helm of the Cardinal program, owning more than 440 wins which is tops in the GLVC and tied for 22nd among all active Division II coaches.

 

ABOUT MISSOURI-ST. LOUIS 

• The first meeting between the Tritons and Cardinals saw UMSL get off to a blazing start, going on an early 12-0 run and extending their lead to 15 by the end of the first quarter. 
• The Tritons are led by All-GLVC performer Alex LaPorta and her 18.4 points and 8.6 rebounds per game. Additionally, the senior is seventh nationally and second in the GLVC with 58 assists for an average of 4.8 per night. LaPorta's younger sister, Bella, has signed to play volleyball for the Cardinals beginning in the fall. 
• In addition to LaPorta, Kiara Stewart is a big threat underneath the basket, with 13.6 points and 9.1 rebounds per night while Breanna Diestelkamp was the National Player of the Week two weeks ago and averages nearly 10 points and five rebounds, typically off the bench. 
• As a team, the Tritons shoot 45.5% from the floor, which is third in the GLVC while hitting 30.6% of long range shots. 
• UMSL enjoys getting to the free throw line, with 240 attempts from the stripe this season, good enough for seventh in Division II. On average, the Tritons connect on just under 75% of those attempts. 
• UMSL is led by ninth year head coach Katie Vaughn, who's 134 wins makes her the program's all-time leader.

ABOUT McKENDREE

• McKendree are coming off a tough 68-63 loss to Quincy on Saturday as the Hawks shot 48% from the field and 47% from three while holding the Bearcats to just 38% and 20% respectively.
• The Bearcats are led offensively by Sydney Diekhoff, who after earning GLVC Freshman of the Year honors in 2018 had to sit out last season due to injury. The redshirt junior is back and averaging 12.5 points per contest, followed closely by Christy Fortune's 12.3. 
• Another team that likes to get to the free throw line, the Bearcats are 11th nationally and third in the GLVC with more than 230 attempts, behind only Lewis and Missouri-St. Louis. Callie Pohlman leads the team with 52 attempts but only hits 59.6% of those, while Diekhoff follows wtih 50 attempts, connecting on 86% of tries. 
• As a team, McKendree shoots 41% from the field while allowing opponents 44%. They also are ninth in the league with a 30.7% clip from the three point line. 
• Pohlmann also is tops on the team and is fifth in the GLVC, averaging just under five assists per game, one-quarter of her team's average of 14.2.