Next up for the Jennies The Jennies (6-3) host a pair of MIAA opponents this week when Central Oklahoma arrives to town for a Thursday night matchup, while the RiverHawks of Northeastern State are slated for a 1 p.m. tip-off with UCM. Both opponents enter their matchup with the Jennies playing well, as the Bronchos have won six straight, while Northeastern State are winners of their last four games. The RiverHawks play at Missouri Western on Thursday night before their matchup with the Jennies on Saturday.
UCM has not lost to either team in the series history. The Jens are 5-0 all-time against Central Oklahoma and are 3-0 against Northeastern State.
Last Time Out The game's first 8:52 was highlighted by five ties, the largest lead by either team standing at three points. With the game knotted at 19-19, Drury pulled ahead by four points, capped off by a three from Annie Armstrong, who finished with four three-pointers on the evening.
After the Jennies and Lady Panthers traded baskets on the next two possessions, sophomore
Andee Wahlert found senior
Jasmine Thompson for a layup to even the contest at 25-25 with 5:41 to go in the first half.
Central Missouri regained the lead following a pair of free throws from Winkelmann, but Drury's Paige Wilson responded with a jumper to bring the score to 27 apiece with 3:32 left in the opening half.
UCM closed out the half on a 7-0 run, the final three points coming on a three-pointer by
Shelby Winkelmann with 1:31 left to put the Jennies up 34-27.
The second half saw the Jennies score six of the first eight points, establishing a nine-point edge, but the Lady Panthers went on a 10-3 run to cut the lead to 44-41 with 14:45 left in the game.
UCM came out of a 30 second timeout with 14:43 left and scored eight unanswered points to build a 52-41 lead. Five of those eight points belonged to Winkelmann.
The two teams exchanged buckets for the next three possessions, but Drury was able to slice the deficit to six following a trey by Shelby White with 11:15 remaining.
The Jennies' lead went back to seven at 58-51 with just over 10 minutes to go, but four free throws from Drury brought the Lady Panthers back to within 58-55.
Following a layup by Howard, Drury's Annie Armstrong nailed a triple to close the gap to two points, and Sanayika Shields would tie the game at 60-60 on a jumper with 6:15 left in the game. It marked the game's first tie since 3:32 left in the first half (27-27).
Six lead changes ensued over the next 4:05, as Drury went up by two points with 2:10 remaining. A free throw by Shields increased the Jennies' deficit to 71-68, but UCM's Thompson came back to sink a pair of free throws to make it a one-point game with 40 seconds left.
Following a timeout, Addy Roller missed a jumper, but the Jennies were unable to re-claim the lead after Thompson missed a layup with four seconds left. Drury sank two free throws following a technical foul from Central Missouri's bench with a second remaining.
With .07 seconds left,
Breonna Embray stole the Drury inbounds pass and UCM called a timeout to set up one last play. Senior
Justina Prairie Chief inbounded the ball to Winkelmann who hit glass on a turnaround three-point attempt, bringing the game to a 73-70 final in favor of Drury.
Slifer By The Numbers Slifer is 32nd on the all-time wins list for all NCAA coaches with 585.
Slifer is sixth among all Division II coaches with 585 wins and is ninth among all Division II coaches with a .741 winning percentage. Slifer needs 15 wins to reach 600 in his 25-year coaching career.
Jennies Basketball In The Multi The Jens are 431-94 all-time in the Multipurpose Building, and 103-31 during the Slifer era ... Central Missouri finished the 2013-14 season with an 11-1 record in the Multi ... UCM has won at least nine home games every year since 2004-05 ... the Jennies have gone undefeated at home four times: 1982-83 (15-0, finished 3rd in the nation), 1985-86 (14-0, regional champions), 1988-89 (15-0, finished 4th in the nation), and 2012-13 ... from 1988 to 1990, the Jennies won a school-record 34 consecutive games at the Multi ... The loss against Drury on Monday snapped a seven-game win streak at home.
Offensive Struggles In the 73-70 loss to Drury,
Revonnia Howard led all scorers with 27, while
Shelby Winkelmann finished with 24 of her own. No other Jennie scored more than eight points. The 27 points for Howard were a new career high and tied a season-high for a Jennie this season.
Justina Prairie Chief was held to single-digit points for the second game in a row, finishing with eight points on Monday.
Three-Point Drought In the last game, the Jennies attempted just eight three-pointers, making just two, both season-lows. They had hit at least four triples in the previous four games.
Bench Struggles The Jennies second unit in the loss on Monday produced just two points, the only basket belonging to
Danielle Barry. The two bench points were the lowest total since November 15, 2013, when they scored seven points in a win over Florida Tech.
Stealing The Ball For the sixth time this season, the Jennies finished a game with double-digit steals, picking off the Drury offense 11 times. It was the first time since November 28 against South Carolina-Aiken that the Jennies recorded double-digit steals in a game. Central Missouri is 4-2 in games where they finish with at least 10 steals.
Rebound Machine Senior forward
Revonnia Howard pulled down a career-high 21 rebounds in the 73-65 overtime win against Quincy on Nov. 24. Howard's 21 rebounds in a single-game are tied for fourth-most in UCM history.
Her 9.5 rebounds per game is currently third in the MIAA entering this week. Thirty-three of her 85 rebounds have been on the offensive end, both team highs. 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).
She has led the Jennies in rebounding in the last three games and has led or been tied for the team-lead in rebounds in six games in 2014-15.
Thompson's Numbers After finishing in double-digit points in five of the first six games, senior
Jasmine Thompson has been limited to single-digit points in two of the past three games, including a season-low six points on December 4 at Fort Hays State. She is currently averaging 13.8 points per game this season, tied for second-most among Jennies.
Knocking Down The Free Throws The Jennies deposited 24-of-28 free throws in the loss to Drury, for a season-best 85% conversion rate. Over the past three games, the Jennies have made 54-of-64 free throws (84.3%).
Point Of Emphasis Dating back to last season, Central Missouri has allowed under 80 points to opponents in 25 of its past 26 games. The Jennies are 20-6 during that span and are 30-6 since the beginning of last season.
Second Half Success Through the first nine games, the Jennies are outscoring their opponents, 324-276 in the second half. They are just plus-8 in point differential in the game's first 20 minutes, outscoring the opposition, 288-280. They were outscored in the second half against Drury on Monday for the first time this season, 46-36.
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 remained out of the Top 25 for the second-consecutive week after dropping out of the Top 25 in last week's WBCA Poll. It ended a 33-week streak of being ranked in the Top 25 for the Jennies, dating back to January of 2013. This season, the Jennies face four opponents (Emporia State, Washburn, Pittsburg State and Drury University) that currently sit in the Top 25.
UCM Program History The UCM Jennies are 881-363 (.708) after 44 seasons, and 678-274 (.712) in the 32 seasons since joining NCAA Division II ... the Jennies have won 10 MIAA regular season championships with last year's title, 7 MIAA Tournament titles, 6 NCAA regional titles, and the 1984 NCAA Division II Championship.
Series History With Central Oklahoma The Jennies are 5-0 in the all-time series against Central Oklahoma. They are 1-0 against the Bronchos in Warrensburg. They won last season's meeting in Edmond, 94-76.
Series History With Northeastern State Central Missouri leads the RiverHawks, 3-0 in the all-time series. The Jennies are 1-0 against Northeastern State at home and won both meetings with the RiverHawks last season.
A Win for the Jennies Would...... improve the Jennies record to 7-3 this season ... keep the Jens undefeated against Central Oklahoma ... improve UCM's conference record to 1-1 ... put them in a position to start 2-1 in conference play for the third time in four seasons.
A Loss for the Jennies Would...... drop the Jennies' record to 6-4 on the season ... snap the Jennies' five-game win streak against the Bronchos ... be the first back-to-back losses at home since 2011-12 ... give the Jens their first 6-4 start since 2010-11 ... put them in position to start 6-5 for the first time since the 2010-11 season.
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.
