Next up for the Jennies The 3-1 Jennies travel south to Pensacola, Florida for a pair of games against South Carolina-Aiken and either West Florida or Arkansas-Monticello. The Jennies are 1-0 all-time against UWF, the first matchup occurring back on Nov. 24, 2000 (65-64). They meet South Carolina-Aiken on Friday at noon for the first time in program history. Saturday's opponent is yet to be determined. Should the Jens match with West Florida, it will be a 12 p.m. tip-off. Should they play Arkansas-Monticello, Saturday's tip-off would be at 4 p.m. UCM has never faced South Carolina-Aiken or Arkansas-Monticello.
Last Time Out Facing a 21-point first half deficit, the 20th-ranked Jennies came back and rallied in overtime to take down visiting Quincy University, 73-65 in Central Missouri's 2014-15 home opener.
Quincy and Central Missouri exchanged buckets through the first 5:52, but the Lady Hawks went on to score 14 unanswered points to pull ahead, 25-9 with just over 10 minutes to go in the opening half. Their lead never dipped under 14 points for the remainder of the half, with their advantage peaking at 38-17 at the 3:40 mark.
Central Missouri faced a 43-26 hole going into halftime, shooting 27.8% (10-of-36) from the floor.
The Jennies opened the second half on an 8-4 spurt to trim their deficit to 13 with 16:45 remaining. A triple by senior
Jasmine Thompson brought the score to 47-34.
Senior
Breonna Embray came up with a steal and fed Thompson for a layup to slice the deficit to seven points at 48-41 with nearly 14 1/2 minutes to go.
After allowing four straight points to the Lady Hawks, junior
Shelby Winkelmann, making her 2014-15 debut for the Jennies, splashed a triple to make it an eight-point game with 9:02 left.
Back-to-back layups by Howard on the next two UCM possessions made it a 52-48 game. Thompson would come through on a jumper to bring the game back to a one-possession contest at 52-50 two possessions later.
Over the next two and a half minutes, the Jennies kept chipping away at the deficit, led by Prairie Chief who scored six straight points to give UCM its first lead since 14:26 in the opening half.
Five lead changes ensued until three seconds remained in regulation. Trailing 63-61, Prairie Chief drew a foul from Carly Beebe and deposited two free throws to knot the game at 63-63, sending the game to overtime.
In overtime, Howard scored the first four points to give UCM a 67-63 lead, before Quincy answered with two good free throws by Tori Kuhn to put the tally at 67-65.
Prairie Chief drew a foul on the next possession and buried two free throws to give UCM a four-point edge with 2:38 left in the extra period. The Jennies closed the game out with four consecutive free throw makes from Embray to preserve the 73-65 win.
Slifer By The Numbers Slifer is 32nd on the all-time wins list for all division coaches with 582.
Slifer is sixth among all Division II coaches with 582 wins and is ninth among all Division II coaches with a .742 winning percentage. Slifer needs just two wins to reach 200 victories as Jennies head coach and 18 wins to reach 600 in his 25-year coaching career.
A Comeback For The Ages In Monday's 73-65 overtime win against Quincy University, the Jennies rallied to overcome a 21-point first half deficit to improve their record to 3-1. The 21-point hole was the largest comeback in the
Dave Slifer era. The previously largest comeback by a Jennies team was Dec. 9, 2000, after trailing by 13 to Drury (94-87 win).
First Impressions Jennies senior guard
Jasmine Thompson has made her presence felt, leading UCM in scoring (17.5). She pulled down 15 rebounds in the season-opener at Minnesota State. She scored 27 points and pulled down 15 boards in her first game as a Jennie in that game.
The 15 rebounds were the most for a Jennie in a season opener since 2011-12 (Nicole Caddell vs. Evangel).
Her 27 points matched the most for a Jennie in their debut in the last 10 seasons. (Tiffany Vincent in 2004-05 against Cameron).
Welcome Back Winkelmann Junior guard
Shelby Winkelmann made her 2014-15 debut with the Jennies in Monday's comeback victory against Quincy. Winkelmann logged 23 minutes and was one of three players record double digit points with 12 on 5-of-10 shooting. Last season, she averaged 10.8 points and 2.7 rebounds per contest, and earned a spot on the All-MIAA Tournament team.
Replacing Flax The Jennies will have the challenging task of replacing the defending MIAA Player fo the Year
and two-time All-American,
Keuna Flax. Senior
Justina Prairie Chief will carry a larger role with the Jennies offense this season.
The El Reno, Oklahoma native pulled down 110 rebounds last season, first among reserves and tallied 23 steals, second among bench players. She registered one game of double-digit points, scoring 14 in the first round of the Central Regional quarterfinals against Northern State.
This season, Prairie Chief has recorded double-digit points in all four games, including a pair of 20-point peformances, which marked a new career high.
Rebound Machine Senior forward
Revonnia Howard pulled down a career-high 21 rebounds in the 73-65 overtime win against Quincy on Monday. Her 10.3 rebounds per game is currently third in the MIAA. 27 of her 41 rebounds have been offensive. Howard was the first Jennie to record at least 20 rebounds since Jojuana Jones hauled in 21 boards on March 6, 2008 in the first round of the MIAA Tournament against SBU (89-80 loss). Howard's 21 rebounds in a single-game are tied for fourth-most in UCM history.
Jennies Shine In Florida Last season, the Jennies went 2-0 playing in the state of Florida, picking up wins against Rollins College and Florida Tech. Since 2008-09, Central Missouri has won five straight games in Florida and six of the past seven, dating back to 2007-08. Their last loss when playing in the Sunshine State was Dec. 20, 2007 against Cameron University.
Point Of Emphasis Dating back to last season, Central Missouri has allowed under 80 points to opponents in 20 of its past 21 games. The Jennies are 17-4 during that span and are 27-4 since the beginning of last season.
New Faces Central Missouri welcomes seven new players to this season's group - one senior, four juniors and two freshman. Thompson, a senior, is the lone newcomer starting.
The juniors include
Stacey Mgbike, a transfer from Missouri Western,
Danielle Randle, a Neosho CC transfer,
Makaila Jordan, formerly of Arkansas Baptist,
Tayler Weiks from Blinn College. The two freshmen are a pair of Iowa natives, Ana Schmidt from Wahlert High School and
Olivia Godfrey, a Panarama High School graduate.
Thompson is second on the team in scoring with 15.3 points per game, while Weiks has buried four triples and is second among UCM reserves with 4.0 points per game.
2014-15 Non-Conference Opponents The non-conference schedule features three teams that posted winning records a season ago and one that qualified for the NCAA Tournament (Drury University). The combined records of all seven non-conference foes the Jennies will face went 98-81 last season.
Through the first four games, the combined records of the opponents they've faced is 10-7.
Excelling In The Classroom The Jennies experienced plenty of success both on and off the court last season with eight MIAA Academic Honor Roll selections, for earning at least a 3.0 cumulative GPA.
MIAA Preseason Polls After a first-place regular season finish a year ago and the program's first outright MIAA title since the 1990-91 season, the Jennies debuted at No. 5 in the Preseason Coaches Poll. The Jennies enter the season behind Emporia State, Pittsburg State, Washburn and Fort Hays State in the Coaches Poll. UCM garnered 127 total points, 11 fewer than Fort Hays State, whom the Jennies eliminated in the MIAA Tournament semifinals last season. The Jennies also earned 15 fewer points than Washburn, whom the Jennies defeated in the regular season last year and 26 fewer points than Pittsburg State, whom the Jennies topped on the road back in January.
UCM in the Polls The Jennies opened the preseason ranked No. 20 in this week's WBCA/USA Today Sports Division II Top 25 Coaches Poll. UCM garnered 182 points in this week's rankings. The basketball program has appeared in the Top 25 for 31-consecutive weeks dating back to January 8, 2013. The Jennies are one of three MIAA schools in the Top 25 (Emporia State at No. 7, Pittsburg State at No. 24). Emporia State maintained the No. 7 ranking from the end of last season, while Pittsburg State climbed out of the rankings to No. 22 to begin the 2014-15 campaign. Together, UCM and Emporia State appear in the Top-25 for the 16th-straight week. The Jennies went 4-2 against teams that open the season in this year's Top 25 rankings (wins against Minnesota State, Pittsburg State, Rollins College and Northern State; losses against Harding and Emporia State). This season, the Jennies face three opponents (Emporia State, Pittsburg State and Drury University) that currently sit in the Top 25.
UCM Program History The UCM Jennies are 878-361 (.708) after 44 seasons, and 675-272 (.712) in the 32 seasons since joining NCAA Division II ... the Jennies have won 10 MIAA regular season championships with this year's title, 7 MIAA Tournament titles, 6 NCAA regional titles, and the 1984 NCAA Division II Championship.
Series History With South Carolina-Aiken This will mark the first meeting between the two schools.
Series History With The University Of West Florida The Jennies lead the all-time series, 1-0, the only meeting occurring during the 2000-01 season. The Jennies prevailed, 65-64.
Series History With Arkansas-Monticello This will mark the first meeting in the history of both schools.
A Win for the Jennies Would...... extend the Jennies' win streak to four games ... improve the Jennies' record to 4-1 overall ... give the Jennies at least four wins through the first five games of the season for the fifth straight year ... should the Jennies win Friday, they would go for their fifth straight win and third consecutive 5-1 start.
A Loss for the Jennies Would...... drop the Jennies' record to 3-2 on the season ... end UCM's three-game win streak ... give the Jens their second 3-2 start in six seasons (2009-10) ... put the Jennies in position to start 3-3 for the first time since 2007-08.
Jennies on the Air Central Missouri women's basketball can be caught throughout the season on 98.5 "The BAR," 1450 KOKO, and warrensburgradio.com as Greg Hassler provides play-by-play.
Fans can catch highlights each week on Central Missouri Sportspage, Thursday nights at 7 p.m., and Saturdays at 5 p.m. on KMOS-TV. Jennies fans can also tune in to 98.5 "The Bar" and 1450 KOKO each Tuesday morning at 9:30 a.m. for Central Missouri Sports Talk, with Greg Hassler and Bill Turnage. The pair will talk UCM athletics, as well as other hot topics in the sports world. Jennies coaches and players will drop in throughout the season as well.
