Jennies Basketball Kicks Off 2015-16 Season In Las Vegas

WARRENSBURG, Mo. - Central Missouri Women's Basketball opens their 2015-16 campaign this weekend from the City of Lights, Las Vegas as a part of the D2 Vegas Showdown. The Jennies first match will be against Northwest Nazarene with a 4 p.m. CT tipoff Friday afternoon. The weekend concludes against Minnesota-St. Moorhead Sunday with a 10:30 a.m. tip. Both games will be streamed online and can be found at www.UCMathletics.com

Tip Off
• 2015 marks the 46th year of UCM Jennies Basketball
• UCM was picked to finish third in the MIAA pre-season coaches poll.
• In the WBCA preseason coaches poll, Central Missouri is receiving 17 votes
• Northwest Nazarene finished last season at 7-20 and 5-13 in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference, missing the GNCA conference tournament.
• Minnesota State-Moorhead finished 2014-15 at 17-12 and 14-8 in the Northern Sun. The qualified for their 15th straight NSIC conference tournament, falling to Wayne St. in the semi-final round, 81-59.

On the Air
• Both games this weekend will be webcast online over Stretch Internet. It is a pay-per-view broadcast and can be found at www.UCMathletics.com

Story Lines
• UCM has only faced Minnesota St.-Moorhead once, losing in 1992, and have yet to face Northwest Nazarene in their history.
• Central Missouri brings back only five letter-winners from last year and one returning starter in senior Shelby Winkelmann.
• UCM is 35-10 all-time in season openers. They snapped a six season season-open win streak in 2014-15 with a last-second loss to Minnesota-Duluth and are 9-2 during the Coach Slifer era.
• Head Coach Dave Slifer won his 600th career game in the MIAA quarterfinal win over Missouri Southern. He is 600-209 lifetime as a coach and 216-110 at UCM.
• Central Missouri got a preview of the team two weeks ago, defeating Missouri Valley in an exhibition game, Nov. 2, 99-51. Danielle Barry recorded a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds and Shelby Winkelmann led four double-digit point scorers with 22.
• The Jennies went 21-9 last season and played in the MIAA semifinal game.

Quick Hits
National Rankings
As a team, the Jennies were in the NCAA Division II top-40 in two categories. UCM was 32nd in turnovers per game at 14. They were plus 2.37 in turnover margin in 2014-15

The Jennies also converted on their free throw attempts. UCM was 34th in the country shooting 76% from the charity stripe. UCM returns two of their top three from 2014-15 in free throw percentage. Tayler Weiks led the team last year at 84% while Shelby Winkelmann was third at 82%.

Comeback Artists
Six times last season of their 21 wins did the Jennies come back to win a game in which they trailed or were tied at halftime. This included coming back at home from a seven-point deficit in the MIAA Play-In Game against Lindenwood. The largest halftime deficit UCM overcame was 17 against Quincy.

Free Basketball
40 minutes wasn't enough for the Jennies in three games last year. UCM went to overtime against Quincy, Fort Hays State and Lindenwood. Unfortunately, the Jens were 1-2 in overtime games, but the three games were the most in a season since UCM went to four overtime games in 2001-02. The Jennies had only been in three overtime games combined since the start of the 2011 season.

Getting Defensive
For 2014-15, UCM held opponents to 39% shooting from the field. During their nine game winning streak throughout the month of February and into March, the Jennies held opponents to a 35% shooting percentage as they stepped up their defensive efforts. The winning streak came to an end in the semifinals of the MIAA Tournament Championship, but the defensive effort was still there, as UCM held Pittsburg State to a 28.3 shooting percentage.

20-20 Vision
With their 21 wins in 2014-15, UCM has now won at least 20 games in four straight seasons. It is their longest such stretch since the Jens went 11 straight years with at least 20 wins from 1981-82 - 1991-92.

Good Hands Team
Part of the reason UCM had such a strong turnover margin, was their penchant to create turnovers on the defensive end. UCM led the MIAA in steals per game with 8.5. Shelby Winkelmann was a large part of that, coming up with 48 steals and 1.8 steals per game.

Three-Point Specialist
In her first season with the Jennies, then-junior Tayler Weiks proved to be a sniper off of the bench. In only 17.2 minutes per game, Weiks hit a team-high 49 three point shots and connected on 39% of her attempts. Her three-point percentage ranked her fifth in the MIAA and her 1.6 made three ranked ninth in the conference.

Iron Woman
Not only did then-junior Shelby Winkelmann average the third-most minutes in the MIAA last season at 34, she increased that total to 38 minutes per game in the final five games of the season. More impressively, Winkelmann played on the 20th ranked Jennies Volleyball team in 2014 which qualified for the NCAA postseason. Between the start of the 2013-14 basketball season through the end of the 2014-15 basketball season, Winkelmann played in 58 basketball games and 31 volleyball games.

Brand New Faces
The Jennies are bringing back only five letterwinners from last years team. By comparison, UCM brought back eight student-athletes last year from the 2013-14 team. The last time the Jennies had this few returning letterwinners was the 2007-08 season which saw only four letterwinners return from the 2006-07 season. Central Missouri welcomes 11 new student-athletes into the mix for 2015-16.

Scouting the Opposition
Northwest Nazarene
2014 Overall Record: 7-20
2014 Conference Record: 5-13 (GNAC)
Series History: First Ever Meeting
Last Meeting:
Head Coach: Ryan Bragdon (22-31, third season)
• Northwest Nazarene finished last year at 7-20 and 5-13 in the GNAC, tying for ninth place and just missing out on the conference tournament.
• The Crusaders were picked to finish in 6th place in the GNAC preseason coaches poll and received one first-place vote. NNU also has two student-athletes that were named to the GNCA preseason All-Conference Team in senior guard Taylor Simmons and sophomore guard Ellie Logan.
• Simmons led the Crusaders scoring 13.7 points per game. She also was tops in the GNAC with 3.6 steals per game. Simmons grabbed 4.4 rebounds per game and shot 46% from the floor.
• NNU had four players in double-figure points, led by Simmons. She was followed by Ellie Logan with 13.3 points, CoCo Gall with 10.8 points and Kate Cryderman with 10.4 points.
• Gall also was the team leader with 5.7 rebounds per game. Though she averaged less than one three-point shot per game, Gall is a threat, hitting 12 of 19 attempts in 2014.
• The Crusaders were the fourth-best scoring offense in the GNAC, averaging 73.9 points per game. They also converted on 76% of their free throw attempts, second-best in the conference.
• One of the few things NNU did better than opponents was steal the ball. The Crusaders totaled 287 steals to their opponents 244. Simmons led the way with 94 and five other Crusaders finished with more than 20.

Minnesota-St. Moorhead
2014 Overall Record: 17-12
2014 Conference Record: 14-8 (NSIC)
Series History: MSU leads 1-0
Last Meeting: Dec. 18, 1992 MSU 74, UCM 64
Head Coach: Karla Nelson (240-159, 15th season)
• The Dragons finished 2014 at 17-12 and 14-8 in the Northern Sun. They advanced to the NSIC for the 15th straight year before bowing out in the semifinal round.
• Starting off 2015, MSU-Moorhead was selected to finished seventh overall in the Northern Sun and third in north division.
• Heather Strese has been named a "player to watch" in the NSIC. She led the Dragons with 7.1 rebounds per game in 2014 and was second with 12.1 points per game.
• Rebounding was a strength for MSU-Moorhead in 2014, outrebounding opponents 41.7 to 34.7, second-best rebounding margin in the conference.
• MSUM was also one of the better shooting-teams in the Northern Sun. The Dragons shot 39% from the floor, 34% from beyond the arc and 78% from the free throw line.
• In addition to Strese, the Dragons also return guard Natalie Van Wyhe. Van Wyhe led the team and was third in the NSIC with 4.1 assists per game.
• The Dragons are losing only one starter from last year's team, though that was their leading scorer. Besides Strese and Van Wyhe, the Dragons bring back Morgan Banasik and Savannah Handevidt. They both started all 29 last season and averaged 16.7 points and 10.6 rebounds combined.