Jennies Basketball Hits the Road to Battle No. 3 Emporia State

Tip Off
• 2015 marks the 46th year of UCM Jennies Basketball.
• UCM was picked to finish third in the MIAA pre-season coaches poll.
• The Jennies split last week, falling to No. 18 Missouri Western before defeating Northwest Missouri State.
• Central Missouri looks to win back-to-back games for the first time this season
• Emporia State is coming off their first loss of the season. The Lady Hornets are 7-1 after dropping a one-point game, 72-71 to No. 5 Fort Hays State.
• ESU is ranked No. 3 in this week's WBCA Poll.

On the Air
• Central Missouri basketball is broadcast live on 1450 KOKO, 98.5 The Bar, and online at
warrensburgradio.com. Games are broadcast by 1450 KOKO/98.5 The Bar Sports Director, Greg Hassler and Assistant Director for Media Relations, Mike Knipper. Video is also available through Central Missouri's online internet portal through Stretch Internet, and can be found at UCMathletics.com

Story Lines
• Last year UCM went 13-6 in conference games, finishing fifth in the regular season standings. They are 1-1 to start this season.
• Last year, the Jennies defeated the Lady Hornets in their only game of the season, 62-61. Emporia State came to Warrensburg as the No. 1 team in the country before the Jennies took them down. Revonnia Howard scored a team-high 20 points and grabbed nine rebounds in the win.
• Emporia State is only one of two MIAA teams to have a winning record against Central Missouri. All-time, the Jennies are 32-39 against the Lady Hornets and are 10-21 at Emporia.
• This is the Jennies first MIAA road game of the season. So far in 2015-16, UCM is 0-2 on the road. They finished 7-5 away from home last season and 5-4 in conference road games.
• Under coach Slifer, Central Missouri is 9-18 against the Lady Hornets.
• Head Coach Dave Slifer won his 600th career game in the MIAA quarterfinal win over Missouri Southern. He is 602-215 lifetime as a coach and 217-115 at UCM. His 602 wins are the sixth most among active Division II Head Coaches.
• The Jennies went 21-9 last season and played in the MIAA semifinal game.

Quick Hits
Last Time Out
The Jennies enjoyed a banner day against Northwest Missouri picking up their first conference win of the season, 85-39. Their 85 points are the most this season and their most in regulation since scoring 88 against Lindenwood Feb. 15, 2014. The 46 point margin of victory is also the highest in an MIAA game since the 1991-92 season. Tayler Weiks set a career-high with 26 points. She shot 9-13 from the field and 8-10 from three. Shelby Winkelmann scored 17 and Ashley Jones chipped in with eight points and seven boards. UCM held the Bearcats to 28.6 shooting percentage.

Milestone Watch
With 17 points scored against Northwest Missouri, senior Shelby Winkelmann is just 40 points away from reaching 1,000 for her career. She scored a career-high 404 points in 2014-15. Winkelmann would become the 25th member of the Jennies 1,000 point club and the first since Keuna Flax in 2014.

Coming Up After the Break
Central Missouri's top scoring period this season has been the third. Coming out of halftime, UCM has scored 131 points in third periods and are outscoring their opponents by 16, allowing 115 in third periods, their second-fewest of any period. Unfortunately, the Jennies get off to slow starts. Their 108 points in the first period is their fewest of any of the four quarters.

Conference Leaders
Jennies senior Ashley Jones is near the top of the conference in rebounding. With 9.3 per game, she sits third in the MIAA. She does lead the conference in offensive rebounds with 27 and 4.5 offensive boards per game. Her offensive rebounds/game is also 18th in the NCAA.

Fellow senior Tayler Weiks is also in the MIAA top-10 for her three point shooting prowess. Weiks is second in the MIAA with 20 three-pointers made and fifth shooting 42% from three.

Little Bit of Everything
Junior Ashley Duffy has been filling out the stat sheet for UCM this season. She averages 6.9 points and 3.4 rebounds/game. She also has a team-best 12 steals, a team third-best 13 assists and is playing 23 minutes per game. Duffy has scored seven points in each of her last two games and grabbed six rebounds against Northwest Missouri.

Cierra Gaines also does a nice-job of helping out in all areas of the game. She's fourth on the team with 7.9 points per game and second with 4.4 boards. She also leads the team with 19 assists. Against Northwest Missouri, Gaines scored seven points and pulled down seven rebounds.

Ranked Opponents
With their loss to No. 18 Drury, Central Missouri is now 2-4 in their last six meetings with teams ranked in the WBCA top-25, dating back to last season. Three of those games came back-to-back-to-back, in which UCM went 2-1 defeating No. 8 Washburn and No. 1 ranked Emporia State. The Lady Hornets is again in the top (), ranking No. () in this week's WBCA poll.

Quick Hands
The Jennies 62 steals this season have then ranked fifth in the MIAA. They've taken the ball away seven more times than opponents. Ashley Duffy has been the leader of the thievery with 12 steals and at least two in five of seven games and in only four games, Shelby Winkelmann has eight steals.

Iron Woman
Senior Shelby Winkelmann is a rare two-sport athlete for Central Missouri. Over her career at UCM, Winkelmann has played in 70 basketball games and 66 volleyball matches. In 2014, Winkelmann averaged 34 minutes on the basketball court while playing in all 109 sets of Jennies Volleyball and was named All-MIAA in both sports.

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.

Scouting the Opposition
Emporia State
Overall Record: 7-1
Conference Record: 1-1 (MIAA)
Series History: ESU leads 39-32
Last Meeting: Jan. 10, 2015 - UCM 62, No. 1 ESU 61, Warrensburg, Mo.
Head Coach: Jory Collins (132-37, 6th season)

• Emporia State dropped their first game of the season last Saturday to No. 5 Fort Hays State. They fall to No. 3 in this weeks rankings after topping the first two WBCA polls.
• These are the Lady Hornets first MIAA home games this season. ESU is 2-0 this season in Emporia with wins over Cameron and University of Science and Arts.
• Perhaps what the Lady Hornets do best, is rebound the ball. Emporia State is first in the nation in rebounding margin at 16.5 and eighth with 48.4 rebounds per game. Kathryn Flott is the Lady Hornets top rebounder, averaging 9.3 caroms per game.
• Emporia also has this week's MIAA Co-Player of the Week in Kelly Moten. Moten is averaging 17.3 points per game and 4.6 rebounds. She'es shooting .472 from the field which is seventh in the MIAA. She scored 31 points against Nebraska-Kearney last weekend including going 10-11 from the free throw line.
• Moten is also the team leader in assists with 35. The team has 117 total assists which is fourth in the MIAA. Addie Lackey (21), Jacee Kramer (14) and Kelsey Barnwell (13) also have double-digit assists.
• The Lady Hornets defense has helped ESU to their 7-1 start. The team is holding opponents to a 34.1 shooting percentage, second-best in the MIAA and 30th in the nation.
• In addition to Moten, Sandra Ngoie and Kelsey Barnwell also are averaging double-digit points. Ngoie is at 11.3 while Barnwell is scoring 10.9 points per game.
• ESU does a good job of getting to the free throw line. Their 163 free throw attempts are third in the MIAA. They're also converting at nearly a 75% rate. The team is 121-162 (74.7%) on free throw attempts. Ngoie, 12-13, and Megan Holloway, 15-18, lead the team. Moten is also shooting better than 80% from the charity stripe, at 31-38 she's shooting 81.6%.