Next up for the Jennies The Jennies (18-8, 12-6 MIAA), pegged at No. 9 in the Central Regional Rankings for the second straight week, look to close out the regular season with their seventh consecutive victory.
UCM can claim the fourth and final conference bye with a win over Northwest Missouri, coupled with a Missouri Southern loss to Lincoln on Saturday. With the Jennies defeating second-place Emporia State and Missouri Southern losing to the Lady Hornets earlier in the season, the Jennies would win the second tie-breaker and earn the fourth and final conference bye.
Northwest Missouri 8-19, 4-14 MIAA) enters the regular season's final day with four straight losses. and currently are in 13th place in the MIAA. They share the same conference record as Southwest Baptist, for the 12th and final seed for the MIAA Tournament. Senior guard Ariel Easton leads the Bearcats with 15.8 points per game and is tied for first in rebounds per game with 5.5 per contest. She also holds team highs in assists (60) and steals (49).
Last Time Out With 32 seconds left in regulation with the game deadlocked at 78-78, Jennies senior
Breonna Embray hit the go-ahead and eventual game-winning three-pointer to lift the Jennies over Missouri Western, 82-78 at the Multipurpose Building.
The victory was the Jennies' (18-8, 12-6 MIAA) sixth in a row, a new season high. Junior
Shelby Winkelmann (25) and senior
Jasmine Thompson (23) combined for 48 points, while juniors
Tayler Weiks (11) and
Danielle Barry (10) added 21 points off the bench. Thompson also added a team-high 11 rebounds to collect her third double-double of 2014-15.
UCM came out firing on all cylinders, spotting themselves with a 13-2 lead in the first 4:38 of the game.
A 10-2 run by Missouri Western cut the lead to three at 15-12 with 11:02 on the first half clock and took their first lead of the game at 25-24 with just under six minutes to play.
After falling behind, 33-28 with 3:55 left to go in the opening half, the Jennies re-claimed the lead going into half with a 12-4 run, five points coming from Thompson.
After the Jennies allowed the first two buckets of the second half to fall behind by a point, the two teams exchanged baskets for the next four possessions. LaQuinta Jefferson then hit back-to-back jumpshots, putting the Griffons ahead, 49-45 with 15:51 left to play in the game.
Thompson tied the game at 49-49 with consecutive layups and again the two foes traded buckets for four possessions before Chelsea Dewey's trey gave Missouri Western a 56-53 lead at the 11:41 mark.
A 7-0 run by the Jennies ensued highlighted by a three-pointer by Weiks. The Jennies built their lead to double-digits at 72-62 with 5:40 to go, but the Griffons worked to cut the lead to 74-72 with nearly 3 1/2 minutes to play.
Holding a 78-76 lead with 1:21 on the clock, Missouri Western's Ariana Novak tied the game at 78-78 with a layup at the 52 second mark of the game.
Following a 30 second timeout, the Jennies set up their final play, with Thompson finding Embray at the center right wing, who buried the shot to put UCM ahead for good, 81-78.
A free throw from Prairie Chief with 18 seconds left put the game away at 82-78 with 18 seconds remaining.
Slifer By The Numbers Slifer is 32nd on the all-time wins list for all NCAA coaches with 597.
Slifer is sixth among all Division II coaches with 597 wins and is ninth among all Division II coaches with a .740 winning percentage.
Slifer needs three wins to reach 600 in his 25-year coaching career.
First Meeting vs. Northwest Missouri In the first meeting of the season on January 17, the Jennies fell in a narrow 61-60 final against the Bearcats in Warrensburg. Senior
Justina Prairie Chief was one of three Jennies to score double-digit points, leading the way with 15 to go with 12 boards.
The game had nine lead changes and seven ties. UCM led 60-59 with under 30 seconds to play, but Northwest Missouri's Taylor Shull drew a foul and deposited a pair of free throws.
The Jennies had two chances at the end but
Shelby Winkelmann's layup was blocked out of bounds with two seconds left. Junior
Tayler Weiks missed on a last second three-pointer to preserve the win for the Bearcats.
New High For Winkelmann Junior guard
Shelby Winkelmann scored a new season high of 25 points against Missouri Western on Wednesday. She knocked down 8-of-12 shots, including 3-of-4 from three-point range. It marked the third time this season that the Rhineland, Missouri native buried three treys in one game.
Inside The Winning Streak During the Jennies' season-best six-game win streak, the offense is averaging 74.0 points while surrending just 61.0 points per game (plus-13.0 point differential).
Three Jennies,
Revonnia Howard (15.2),
Shelby Winkelmann (14.0),
Jasmine Thompson (13.2) are averaging double-digit points. Howard is also pulling down a team-best 10.0 rebounds per game during the win streak.
Junior
Tayler Weiks leads all bench players with 8.8 points per contest and is shooting 42.9% (12-of-28) from behind the three-point arc.
Season-High In Helpers After setting a then-season high with 17 assists in the Feb. 21 win against Southwest Baptist, the Jennies set the bar even higher with 19 helpers in the 82-78 victory against Missouri Western on Wednesday. In all six games during the win streak, the Jens have finished with at least 10 assists.
Second Chance Opportunities In the last four games and fifth time in the last six games, the Jennies pulled down double-digit offensive rebounds against Missouri Western. The Jennies have recorded 12, 16, 14 and 11 offensive boards in the past four contests.
Rebound Machine Senior forward
Revonnia Howard has been an asset on the boards this season for the Jennies. Her 9.1 rebounds per game is currently third in the MIAA entering this week. Seventy-eight of her 237 rebounds have been on the offensive end, both team highs.
She is one of three Jennies (
Justina Prairie Chief,
Jasmine Thompson) to pull down triple-digit rebounds this season. She is one of two Jennies (Prairie Chief) to have 100 defensive rebounds this season as well.
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.
The Chicago, Illinois native 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 pulled down at least eight rebounds in five of the past six games.
Block Party Howard has blocked 43 shots this season, bumping her career total to 86, matching her total from a season ago.
She is five blocks shy of tying Kamala Sherman for sixth-place on UCM's all-time list.
Bench Duo Juniors
Danielle Barry and
Tayler Weiks, the two top bench scorers this season, statistically, combined for all 21 bench points in the four-point win against Missouri Western on Wednesday. Weiks netted 11 points, while Barry scored 10. It's the first time this season both players scored double-digit points in the same game.
Thompson Scores 20 Senior guard
Jasmine Thompson scored 23 points against Missouri Western, four points shy of matching her career high. It was the first time in seven games (at Lindenwood, Jan. 24), she scored at least 20 points. She also hauled in a team-high 11 rebounds for her third double-double of the season.
Lock Down Defense In four of the past five games, the Jennies defense has held opponents to under 40% shooting, including a 27.6% showing against Missouri Southern. They have come up with 41 steals in those five games and have forced 72 turnovers.
3-Point Efficiency The Jennies hit 7-of-14 of their three-point shot attempts against Missouri Western. It was the first time since the MIAA Tournament Quarteriinals last season against Northeastern State, hitting 11-of-20 treys (55%).
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.
UCM in the Polls
The Jennies were ranked in the Top 25 for 33 consecutive weeks from January of 2013-December of 2014. This season, the Jennies faced four opponents (Fort Hays State, Emporia State, Pittsburg State and Drury) that currently sit in the Top 25, finishing with a record of 1-3.
UCM Program History The UCM Jennies are 893-368 (.708) after 44 seasons, and 690-279 (.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 Northwest Missouri The Jennies lead the all-time series with the Bearcats, 62-26. They had their five-game win streak against Northwest Missouri snapped back on January 17. UCM has won the past two meetings in Maryville.
A Win for the Jennies Would...... extend the Jennies' win streak to seven games ... improve the Jennies record to 19-8 this season and 13-6 in MIAA play ... be the third straight win against the Bearcats on the road.
A Loss for the Jennies Would...... drop the Jennies' record to 18-9 on the season ... drop the Jennies conference record to 12-7 ...be the first season sweep for Northwest Missouri against UCM 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.
Central Region Rankings For the second straight week, the Jennies were ranked No. 9 in the initial Central Region rankings that were released by the NCAA last Wednesday afternoon. The top eight teams in the final rankings on Sunday, March 8 qualify for the Central Regional tournament March 13, 14 and 16 at a campus site to be determined. The NCAA-II Women's Selection Show is set for 9 p.m. on Sunday, March 8 on NCAA.com.
