MVC Women's Basketball WEEKLY NOTEBOOK - JAN. 23, 2024

Belmont Bruins

• Sunday’s triumph at Northern Iowa was only Belmont’s second-ever win in the state of Iowa. With the road victory, the Bruins and head coach Bart Brooks improved to 4-0 versus the Panthers. The win was Belmont’s fifth true road victory of the season. The Bruins are 6-4 away from Nashville this season.
• Only three teams – No. 4 Stanford, No. 13 Ohio State and Missouri – have been able to score more than 70 points against Belmont in 2023-24. The Bruins have held 11 of their 18 opponents this season under 65 points and kept eight teams under 60 points.
• Belmont leads the MVC in both scoring (60.7 PPG) and field goal percentage (38.3) defense. Cheesman has scored in double figures in five-straight games for the first time in her career. She is averaging 14.8 points in her last five outings. Junior guard Kilyn McGuff has reached double figures in all four of the Bruins’ wins against Northern Iowa, averaging 15.3 points.

RESCHEDULE UPDATE

The Conference has also announced the Murray State-Belmont women's basketball contest from Nashville, Tenn., has been selected as a featured MVC Game of the Week and will air on the MVC TV Network [ESPN+, Bally Sports Midwest; Bally Sports Indiana Extra; Bally Sports Kansas City; Bally Sports South (GA / NC / SC / TN / Huntsville main channel - no KY main or plus clearance due to professional content) & NBC Sports Chicago]. The game moves from Saturday, Feb. 3, to Friday, Feb. 2, and air time is at 6 p.m. CT. Additionally, the Drake-UNI women's basketball contest scheduled for Friday, Feb. 2, has been moved to Saturday, Feb. 3. The contest, played in Cedar Falls, Iowa, will air on ESPN+ and tip time will be announced at a later time.

BRADLEY Braves

• The Braves saw two Valley losses of the season against UIC (75-68) in Chicago on Friday. The Braves also saw a loss to Valparaiso on Sunday (79-55) in Indiana.
• The Braves played in another nail-biter against the Flames. Bradley led the game for 17:50 minutes, as the Flames only held the lead for 16:07 minutes. Throughout the night, there were 11 lead changes, with the game tied eight times. The game was tied for 5:58. Bradley started hot, scoring 7-12 and having their largest lead of the game, 17-10. The Braves went into halftime leading 33-31. The Brave's shooting was consistent most of the game, finishing as a team 44% from the field. Freshman Armoni "Moni" Strozier had a strong performance for the Braves. In her second game in the starting lineup, she was able to snag 10 rebounds from the tall UIC Flames, the most for Bradley. She topped off her night by scoring 10 points, the third most on the team.
• Against the Beacons Bradley had seven second-chance points, two more than the Beacons. The Braves recorded eight steals as a team, from eight different players. Bradley had three more steals than Valpo, but Valpo only had four players record a steal. The Braves and Beacons were tied in points in the paint, each team scoring 24 points. Junior Katy Wade made her first three-pointer of the season. Freshman Claire McDougall had an incredible fourth quarter, shooting 60% from the field, making 2-3 from the three-point arc, scoring eight points with two rebounds, two assists and a steal.

DRAKE Bulldogs

• The Bulldogs continued their remarkable stretch to start the conference season as Drake swept a pair of pressure-packed matchups on Des Moines’ Hometown Team Weekend. Drake secured victories over Belmont (1/19) and Murray State (1/21) to extend their winning streak to eight games and improve their MVC record to 7-0. Taylor McAulay led the Bulldogs with 17 points in their comeback effort against the Bruins on Friday evening. Drake closed the weekend with a marathon victory behind a career-high 30 points from graduate student-athlete Grace Berg, 20+ points from both Anna Miller and Katie Dinnebier, and a near-triple-double from forward Courtney Becker (12pts-9reb-8ast). Next up, Drake will test their unblemished league record away from home with visits to Bradley on Jan. 25 and Illinois State on Jan. 27.

RESCHEDULE UPDATE

The Drake-UNI women's basketball contest scheduled for Friday, Feb. 2, has been moved to Saturday, Feb. 3. The contest, played in Cedar Falls, Iowa, will air on ESPN+ and tip time will be announced at a later time.

ILLINOIS STATE Redbirds

• The Redbirds saw a road win and road loss this weekend against Valparaiso on Friday (77-68) and a loss to UIC in overtime on Sunday (86-79).
• Against the Beacons, Wilson put up her 23rd career double-double. She sits fourth on the Illinois State all-time double-doubles list and is four double-doubles shy of tying Marla Maupin for third in program history. It is the second time this season Wilson has put up double-doubles in back-to-back games. The Redbirds finished with 31 points off the bench, their seventh game this season with 30-plus bench points. Illinois State has put up 30-plus points off the bench in three Valley games this season. The Redbirds extended a four-game win streak over the Beacons and improved to 13-4 all-time against Valparaiso. Illinois State improved to 6-1 this season when Waite hits three-plus threes, with the lone loss at No.5 NC State Dec. 3.
• Against the Flames Illinois State saw its win streak against in-state foes snapped at 14. The Redbirds were 5-0 against in-state foes this season heading into Sunday and 11-0 over the last two seasons. It was Illinois State's first loss to an in-state team since Southern Illinois handed the Redbirds a 65-49 loss at CEFCU Arena in February of 2022. The loss snapped a three-game win streak for Illinois State against UIC. The Redbirds dropped to 19-4 all-time versus the Flames. It was Illinois State's first overtime game of the year and just their second game to go to overtime in the last two seasons, joining a 74-70 win over Dayton to open last season. It was Dowell's fifth double-figure scoring outing over the last five games. The performance was also her first career outing with double-figure rebounds.

INDIANA STATE Sycamores

• Hitting From Distance
• Indiana State guard Bella Finnegan has found her stroke from behind the arc since the calendar flipped to conference play. Finnegan is connecting on 47.1 percent of her 3-point attempts against MVC foes this season, going 16-for-34 from behind the arc. Finnegan’s numbers over the last five games are even better, as she has hit on 14 of her 27 attempts from distance during that span (51.9 percent).
• Sharp-Shooting Sycamores
• Indiana State has started to find increased success on the offensive end in recent games, as the Sycamores have shot better than 40 percent from the field in each of the last three contests. The Trees have also shot better than 50 percent from 3-point range in each of the last two games. As a team, Indiana State has shot 41.5 percent from the field over its last five games, while shooting 39.7 percent from behind the arc during that span. Indiana State’s scoring has also been a balanced effort, with four of the Sycamores’ five regular starters averaging double-digit scoring this season.

MISSOURI STATE Bears

• With two wins last weekend, Missouri State extended its home win streak to 12 games - which is tied for the 10th longest home win streak in program history. Missouri State hasn’t lost a game at home since Feb. 19, 2023 as the Lady Bears improved to 21-4 at Great Southern Bank Arena under head coach Beth Cunningham.
• Head Coach Beth Cunningham is one victory shy of reaching 200 career wins (199-131). She owned a record of 167-115 in nine seasons as head coach at VCU from 2003-2012 and is 32-16 in her second season at Missouri State.
• Missouri State point guard Lacy Stokes continues to dominate as the Lady Bears’ floor general. Stokes ranks 9th nationally and second in the MVC with a 3.04 assist-to-turnover ratio, but her ratio skyrockets to 6.7 (40 AST/6 TO) in seven MVC games. She owns eight games this season with fewer than two turnovers - five of those games coming in Valley play. Stokes also ranks 71st nationally with 4.6 assists per game.

Murray State Racers

• The Murray State women's basketball falls at Northern Iowa (75-95) for their first Missouri Valley Conference loss of the season, Friday. This ends the Racers winning streak at 11 which is tied for the program's longest winning streak (2008-09).
• The Panthers set the pace early by outscoring the Racers 29-13 in the first quarter and 26-16 in the second. The Racers outscored the Panthers 46-40 but it was not enough to take the game back.
• Kate the Great: Katelyn Young made 12 points and 10 rebounds for her sixth double-double of the season. She is now third all-time in Racers' history with 36-career double-doubles.
• Murray State women's basketball falls on the wrong end of a high-scoring thriller as they lost 98-107 at Drake, Sunday. Both teams left everything on the line in a back-and-forth game. The Racers and Bulldogs tied in the first (21-21) and third (26-26) quarters but latter took the edge on the second (26-23) and fourth (34-28) quarters. The Racers are now 5-2 in conference play and are sitting at fourth in the Missouri Valley Conference standings.
• Kate the Great: Katelyn Young led the Racers with 28 points and are now 12 points away from her 2000th career-point.
• High Scoring Nail-Biter : The game is the highest-scoring MVC game of the season. This is the Racers 10th 90-plus point game of the season.

RESCHEDULE UPDATE

The 6 p.m. CT game will air on ESPN+. The Conference has also announced the Murray State-Belmont women's basketball contest from Nashville, Tenn., has been selected as a featured MVC Game of the Week and will air on the MVC TV Network [ESPN+, Bally Sports Midwest; Bally Sports Indiana Extra; Bally Sports Kansas City; Bally Sports South (GA / NC / SC / TN / Huntsville main channel - no KY main or plus clearance due to professional content) & NBC Sports Chicago].

SOUTHERN ILLINOIS Salukis

• The Salukis' offense exploded on Sunday, scoring a season-high 99 points in a 99-60 win over Evansville. The 99 points are the most SIU has scored since it posted 105 points vs. Evansville on Feb. 25, 2023. In the victory, Southern Illinois also had a season-best 29 assists, the most since having 33 in that same game against the Purple Aces last season. Laniah Randle had her seventh rebound of the season in Sunday's victory.