Next up for the Jennies Following two victories in Florida last weekend, the No. 21 Jennies (5-1) take a five-game win streak into the start of conference play this week. They open the MIAA portion of their schedule at Fort Hays State on Thursday, Dec. 4 for a 5:30 p.m. tip-off. Central Missouri ends the week with a non-conference matchup against William Jewell College at the Multipurpose Building on Sunday, December 7 at 1 p.m. The Jennies went 3-0 against these two teams a season ago, two of them coming in Warrensburg, the other in the MIAA Tournament semifinals.
Last Time Out The No. 24 Jennies gave 11th-year head coach
Dave Slifer his 200th win while at the helm of the UCM program, downing host West Florida.
With the victory, the Jennies begin the season at 5-1 for the third straight year.
The Jennies spotted themselves a 4-1 lead just three minutes into the game with layups from senior
Justina Prairie Chief and junior
Danielle Barry. West Florida battled back to tie the game at 13-13 and would take their only lead shortly thereafter at 15-13 with just over 10 minutes left in the half.
UCM outscored the Argonauts, 9-2 over the next 2 1/2 minutes, capped off by a four-point play by junior guard
Tayler Weiks who splashed a triple from the right corner while absorbing a hard foul from Alyssa Dupree-Moore.
West Florida ended the half on a 12-5 run to close the gap to three points at 32-29 going into intermission. The Jennies received 21 points from the second unit in the first half. Barry led UCM reserves with seven of those 21 points.
Coming out of halftime, West Florida narrowed the Jennies' lead to two following a free throw by Toni Brewer, but the Jennies responded with five unanswered points over the next 1:36, pushing their lead to 37-30.
A 7-2 spurt by the Argonauts closed the gap to two points, but the Jennies pulled away once again, manufacturing an 11-4 run, highlighted by five points from junior
Shelby Winkelmann.
UCM was able to hold off West Florida for the remainder of the game, building a 57-47 lead with just over 5 1/2 minutes left. West Florida made a run at a late comeback, cutting the deficit to six points, but the Jennies closed out the game using a free throw from Prairie Chief and a layup from
Jasmine Thompson to extend their winning streak in the state of Florida to seven games, dating back to 2008-09.
Slifer By The Numbers Slifer is 32nd on the all-time wins list for all NCAA coaches with 584.
Slifer is sixth among all Division II coaches with 584 wins and is ninth among all Division II coaches with a .743 winning percentage. Slifer needs 16 wins to reach 600 in his 25-year coaching career.
First Impressions Jennies senior guard
Jasmine Thompson has made her presence felt, leading UCM in scoring (15.7). In three games last week, she was second among Jennies averaging 14.0 points, shooting a team-high 63% from the floor (17-of-27) and making 2-of-3 triples.
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 November 24's historic comeback victory against Quincy. In three games this season, the Rhineland, Mo. native is second on the team in scoring with 15.0 points per game. She is also tied for second in assists (12) and third in steals (9).Last season, she averaged 10.8 points and 2.7 rebounds per contest, and earned a spot on the MIAA All-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 has carried 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 six games, including a
pair of 20-point peformances, which marked a new career high. Over her last three games, she has averaged 13.3 points per game, while hauling in 19 boards (second on team) and deposited 19-of-26 free throws (73.1%).
Rebound Machine Senior forward
Revonnia Howard pulled down a career-high 21 rebounds in the 73-65 overtime win against Quincy on Monday. Her 8.0 rebounds per game is currently sixth in the MIAA. 14 of her 48 rebounds have been on the offensive end. 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.
Free Throw Woes Through the first four games of the season, the Jennies shot 77.4% (79-of-102) from the charity stripe. In the two games in Pensacola, Florida last weekend, the Jens shot just 62.7% (27-of-43) from the free throw line.
Support From The Bench In the Jennies' win at West Florida last Saturday, the team's second unit came up with 37 points, the highest total since November 26, of last season against Evangel, when the bench produced 36 points in relief of the starters.
Point Of Emphasis Dating back to last season, Central Missouri has allowed under 80 points to opponents in 22 of its past 23 games. The Jennies are19-4 during that span and are 29-4 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 leading the team in scoring with 15.7 points per game, while Weiks has buried seven triples and is third among UCM reserves with 3.8 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). (Last season, the seven non-conference opponents the Jennies will face went a combined 98-81).
Through the first six games, the combined record of the opponents they've faced is 16-14.
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 moved up three spots to No. 21 in this week's WBCA Poll following a 3-0 week against Quincy, South Carolina-Aiken and West Florida. The basketball program has appeared in the Top 25 for 33-consecutive weeks dating back to January 8, 2013. The Jennies are one of four MIAA schools in the Top 25 (Emporia State at No. 1, Washburn at No. 7, Pittsburg State at No. 8). Emporia State moved up one spot to No. 1 after opening the season at No. 7, while Pittsburg State climbed from No. 10 to No. 8 following a 7-1 start to the season. Together, UCM and Emporia State appear in the Top-25 for the 18th-straight week. 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 880-361 (.709) after 44 seasons, and 677-272 (.713) 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 Fort Hays State The Jennies lead the all-time series with the Tigers, 13-7. They have won three-straight meetings, but have not won a game in Hays, Kansas since Feb. 13, 2010.
Series History With William Jewell College The Jennies lead the all-time series, 7-0, and won last season's meeting, 85-68 in Warrensburg on November 13, 2013.
A Win for the Jennies Would...... extend the Jennies' win streak to six games ... improve the Jennies' record to 6-1 overall ... give the Jennies at least six wins through the first seven games of the season for the fourth straight year ... should the Jennies win Thursday, they would go for their seventh straight win and fourth consecutive 7-1 start.
A Loss for the Jennies Would...... drop the Jennies' record to 5-2 on the season ... snap UCM's five-game win streak ... give the Jens their first 5-2 start since 2010-11 ... put the Jennies in position to start 5-3 for the first time since 2010-11.
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.
