The No. 3 seeded Jennies (25-4) will match up with the No. 6 seeded Northern State Wolves (24-6) in the NCAA-II Central Regional Quarterfinals on Friday, March 14 at 7:30 p.m. Central Missouri makes its third-consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance and sixth under head coach
Dave Slifer. This game will mark the first ever meeting between the two schools. Northern State clinched its first NCAA Tournament birth since the 2010-11 season, advancing to the NSIC Finals before falling to Concordia-St. Paul, 54-36. Jennies senior forward
Keuna Flax needs four points to pass Ashley Millham and move into 23rd place on UCM's all-time scoring list. Junior Revonna Howard needs four blocks to tie Rosie Jones and Kaneesha Lee for sixth-most in a single season with 46. The Jennies are 2-5 in the NCAA Tournament under head coach
Dave Slifer. Northern State is averaging 67.7 points per game, while allowing 59.0 points to oppponents, second-lowest in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference. The Wolves have three players averaging double-figure points (Alison Kusler 15.6, Rachel Krogman - 15.5 and Megan Mutchler - 11.4).
Last Time Out
The No. 8 Jennies fell to No. 7 Emporia State, 75-71 in the MIAA Tournament championship for the second-consecutive season on Sunday afternoon in Kansas City. UCM trailed by 14 points with 14 minutes to play in the second half and tied the game with 1:19 left, but the Lady Hornets pulled away in the final minute, scoring four straight points to take the victory. The Jennies trailed by nine, 38-29 at halftime.
Revonnia Howard and
Keuna Flax each scored in the first minute of the second half to cut the deficit to five, but a three-pointer by Laura Patrick and a pair of baskets by Kionna Kellog and Quick pushed Emporia State's lead back up to 12 at 45-33 with 17:22 remaining.
The Jennies were able slice the deficit to single-digits, holding Emporia State to two points while piling up 10 points in a span of 42 seconds. They continued to chip away, pulling to within 63-55 over nearly six-and-a-half minutes, capped off by a jumper from Flax with 5:07 left.
UCM and ESU exchanged baskets on the next three possessions before Moten dropped in a layup with 2:33 left to put the lead at 71-65.
A three-pointer by
Breonna Embray on the next UCM posession, her only points on the day, brought the score to 71-68 with 2:15 left. Following a defensive stop, Embray found
Shelby Winkelmann who buried a three from the bottom right corner to tie the game at 71-71.
Following a timeout, Emporia State jumped back ahead by four following a pair of layups by Quick to seal the 75-71 victory.
The loss snapped the Jennies' 10-game win streak, the longest since the 1989-90 season. The Jennies' all-time postseason record against Emporia State fell to 2-10.
Slifer By The Numbers
Slifer is 34th on the all-time wins list for all division coaches with 578.
Slifer is sixth among all Division II coaches with 578 wins and is eighth among all Division II coaches with a .743 winning percentage.
Slifer earned his 570th career win in UCM's 67-64 win against Southwest Baptist on Feb. 6.
NCAA Central Regional
The Jennies earn their 19th entry to the NCAA Tournament this season, after a successful 25-4 campaign. Central Missouri holds an 19-18 all-time record in the NCAA Tournament, and have won six NCAA regional championships, the last coming in 1990. As of late, the Jennies have struggled in the big dance, going just 2-10 in their 10 appearances since their last regional title.
MIAA Tournament All-Tournament Team
Senior
Keuna Flax and sophomore
Shelby Winkelmann were named to the MIAA Tournament All-Tournament team following the conclusion of the conference title game. Flax led the Jennies in scoring with 18.7 points and added 6.3 rebounds. She averaged a team-high 32.7 minutes in three games. Winkelmann averaged 14.3 points per game, shooting 63% from the floor amd 70% from three-point range (7-of-10). It's the second-straight All-MIAA Tourney team honor for Flax and first for Winkelmann.
National Leaders
Flax finished the 2013-14 regular season ranked 18th in points per game with 20.5. She shot 56.5% from the field, which was good for 19th in Division II. The Jennies finished 39th in offensive scoring, averaging 76.4 points per game. UCM finished the regular season ranked 31st with a +10.2 scoring margin.
An Encore For Flax
For the second-straight season, senior forward
Keuna Flax finished regular season play as the top scorer in the MIAA. During the regular season, she averaged 20.3 points per game, a slight improvement from her 19.7 points per contest in 2012-13.
Join The Club
Against Fort Hays State, Flax became the 25th member of the Jennies' 1,000-point club and now has 1,035 career points. She tied LaShonda Albert as the fastest player in Jennies' history to reach the 1,000-point plateau, accomplishing the feat in 51 games.
Regular Season Milestone
With 23 wins in the 2013-14 regular season, the Jennies program passed its total from a season ago when the team finished with 22 wins prior to the conference tournament. It's the first time the Jennies have won 23 regular season games in the
Dave Slifer era.
Win Number 25
The Jennies have won 25 games this season, the most since the 1989-90 season when the team finished 29-3 under head coach Jon Pye. That team went on to win the regional title.
Rebounding Machine
Jennies forward
Revonnia Howard averaged 14.0 rebounds in the final two games of the MIAA Tournament. In the conference title game against Emporia State, Howard pulled down 15 boards, five offensive, one short of matching
Nicole Caddell, who pulled down six offensive boards in two conference tourney games last season.
Jennies By The Numbers
The Jennies are 22-0 when leading at halftime and are 23-0 when leading with five minutes remaining. They are 5-2 in games decided by five points or less.
UCM is also 2-2 in games decided by two points or less this season (defeated Pittsburg State and Lincoln, lost to Lindenwood).
The Jennies are 3-0 following a loss this season.
Turnover Numbers
Over the past five games, the Jennies have committed 12 or more turnovers and are 4-1 in those games. UCM has gone four games this season without committing double-digit turnovers and are 4-0 in those games.
Offensive Boards
The Jennies pulled down 14 offensive rebounds on Sunday against Emporia State the 13th time in the past 14 games they have recorded double-digit offensive rebounds. In only three games this season have the Jennies not recorded at least 10 offensive boards.
Winkelmann Coming On Strong
Over the past five games, sophomore
Shelby Winkelmann has scored 11 points or more and is averaging 14.4 points per game. She is also shooting 70% (7-of-10) from three in her past two games. It is her best stretch of the season since November 26 through December 19 when she averaged 12.6 points per game over a five-game period.
Senior guard
BreAnna Lewis registered 88 three-pointers during the 2012-13 season. The 88 shots made from beyond the three-point arc placed her second on the Jennies' single-season list (four behind Jessica Burkholder in 1996-97 season).
This season, Lewis has sank 52 three-pointers, reaching five twice this season. She has recorded at least one three-pointer in 23 of 29 games (none against FHSU, WU, LU, SBU and MWSU twice). The 52 three-pointers puts her three-point career total to 140 – seventh on the Jennies' all-time three-point field goals made list. She is five three-pointers from tying Maegan Fromm for sixth on UCM's all-time leaderboard.
She shot 35.7% (5-of-14) from beyond the arc during the MIAA Tournament.
Defensive Spark Off The Bench
Junior transfer
Justina Prairie Chief has made her presence felt on the team's second unit, leading all bench players in rebounds with 105 (33 offensive). She's pulled down 25 rebounds in her last eight games, logging a total of 108 minutes.
Holding Down The Frontcourt
Junior transfer
Revonnia Howard is averaging 9.8 points and 9.2 rebounds and has 42 blocked shots in 29 games. She averaged 9.1 boards in the regular season, third-most in the MIAA. She set a new career-high in rebounds on Jan. 18 at Northwest Missouri with 17 (four offensive) to go along with 12 points. She has 12 games of at least 10 rebounds this season, which is first among Jennies. Howard needs four blocks to tie Rosie Jones and Kaneesha Lee for sixth-most in a single season with 46.
Twine Continues To Shine
This season, senior
Quinnecia Twine has played in 27 games, starting two, and is averaging 7.6 points, shooting 62-of-155 from the floor (40.0%). She has added 24 steals and 31 assists. Her 7.6 points leads all bench players this season. Twine finished the regular season tied for third in the MIAA in 3-point field goal percentage at .385 with Emporia State's Laura Patrick. She scored in double-figure points in five of the Jennies' final seven regular season games. In the quarterfinals game against Northeastern State, Twine led all bench scorers with 12 points and drained 4-of-5 three-pointers.
Excelling In The Classroom
The Jennies experienced plenty of success both on and off the court last season with seven MIAA Academic Honor Roll selections, for earning at least a 3.0 cumulative GPA.
Junior
Kiersten Orton and freshman
Shelby Winkelmann both won the MIAA Academic Excellence Award, which recognizes student-athletes with a 4.0 GPA. The award was the third for Orton.
MIAA Preseason Polls
After a second-place regular season finish a year ago, the Jennies debuted at No. 1 in the 2013-14 MIAA Preseason Media Poll, and No. 2 in the Coaches Poll. The Jennies enter the season ahead of Fort Hays State in both polls, after finishing ahead of the Tigers in the final 2012-13 MIAA Standings and eliminating FHSU in the MIAA Tournament semifinals. UCM tallied fewer votes than Emporia State in the preseason coaches poll, but garnered more points than the Lady Hornets in the preseason media poll. Washburn, who finished in first place in last year's regular season standings, but were eliminated in the MIAA Tournament semifinals by Emporia State, were picked to finish third in both the preseason coaches and media poll. Fort Hays State and Pittsburg State placed fourth and fifth to round out the top five teams in both polls.
UCM in the Polls
The Jennies moved up three spots to No. 8 in this week's WBCA/USA Today Sports Division II Top 25 Coaches Poll. UCM garnered 544 points in this week's rankings, a 67-point improvement from last week's poll. UCM defeated Missouri Western on the road and closed out the regular season with a convincing victory at home against Northwest Missouri to clinch the No. 1 seed in the MIAA Tournament. The basketball program has appeared in the Top 25 for 30-consecutive weeks dating back to January 8 of last season. The Jennies are one of three MIAA schools in the Top 25 (Emporia State at No. 7, Pittsburg State at No. 22). Emporia State fell two spots to No. 7, while Pittsburg State climbed one spot to 22nd in the poll. UCM and Emporia State appear in the Top-25 for the 15th-straight week. The Jennies are 3-2 against teams currently in the Top 25 (wins against Minnesota State, Pittsburg State and Rollins College; losses against Harding and Emporia State).
UCM Program History
The UCM Jennies are 874-359 (.708) after 43 seasons, and 673-270 (.713) in the 31 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 Northern State
This marks the first ever meeting with the Northern State Wolves.
A Win for the Jennies Would...
... be the first win in the NCAA Tournament since 2006 ... improve the Jennies record to 26-4 this season ... improve the Jennies record against Northern State to 1-0 ... be the third win in last four games in the NCAA Tournament over a non-MIAA opponent ... improve the Jennies record in the NCAA Tournament in the
Dave Slifer era to 3-5.
A Loss for the Jennies Would...
... be the fourth straight first-round exit in the NCAA Tournament ... drop the Jennies record to 25-5 on the year ... be the first ever loss to Northern State ... be the second loss to a non-MIAA opponent in the NCAA Tournament since 1990 (Oakland, NCAA Elite Eight, Southwestern Oklahoma State, NCAA Quarterfinals).
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.
