EVANSVILLE, Ind.—The University of Southern Indiana women's basketball team will try to extend its six-game winning streak when it hosts Bellarmine University Thursday at 5:15 p.m. The Screaming Eagles finish the weekend Saturday at 1 p.m. when they host Northern Kentucky University.
USI (10-2, 3-2 GLVC), which leads the GLVC in nine statistical categories and ranks in the top three in six other statistical categories, has stepped up its defensive play, particularly from the arc where the Screaming Eagles are holding the opposition to just 23.3 percent shooting during their winning streak.
Senior guard
Jamie Truitt (Owensboro, Kentucky) and senior forward/center
Andrea Engleking (Charlottesville, Indiana) are averaging 17.8 and 16.0 points per game (ppg) during USI's winning streak. Junior forward
Sabrina Brandon (Danville, Indiana) is averaging 13.3 ppg during that time.
A big plus for the Eagles during their winning streak has been the play of junior point guard
Tiara Brown (Normal, Illinois). Brown is averaging 7.7 points, 6.0 assists, 3.0 rebounds, and 2.2 steals in the last six games.
For the season, Truitt leads the Eagles with 14.6 ppg and is connecting on a league-best 3.2 three-pointers per game. Engleking is second on the team with 13.2 ppg and is averaging a team-high 5.8 rebounds per game (rpg), while Brandon is chipping in 11.2 ppg and 5.0 rpg.
Bellarmine (10-2, 4-1 GLVC), which swept the season-series from the Eagles last season and leads the all-time series 32-16, has six players averaging in double-figures, led by freshman guard Angela Smith's 14.2 ppg.
Senior point guard Princess Wimsatt will be a key player for the Eagles to shutdown Thursday evening. Wimsatt, who is averaging 10.4 points and 6.6 assists per game (apg), scorched the Eagles last season for 11.5 ppg and 10.0 apg.
NKU (5-7, 3-3 GLVC), which plays the University of Missouri-St. Louis in St. Louis Thursday, has struggled in 2004-05, but enters with some confidence after a 57-51 victory at Northwood University December 31 in the GLIAC/GLVC Holiday Classic. The victory was NKU Head Coach Nancy Winstel's 500th career win.
Winstel's Norse, who split the season series with the Eagles last year and lead the all-time series 29-16, are led by senior forward Connie Myers and sophomore forward/center Karmen Graham. Myers leads the team with 17.8 ppg and 8.3 rpg, while Graham is second on the squad with 11.1 ppg and 6.0 rpg.
