EVANSVILLE, Ind.—The University of Southern Indiana women's basketball team controls its own GLVC Tournament destiny when it hosts the University of Missouri-Rolla Thursday at 5:15 p.m. and the University of Missouri-St. Louis for Senior Day Saturday at 1 p.m. to close out the regular season.
USI (15-13, 7-10 GLVC, 5-5 West), which is coming off a 76-68 overtime victory at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, is a game back of UM-Rolla and UM-St. Louis for third in the GLVC West Division and an automatic bid in the GLVC Tournament.
If the Screaming Eagles win both games this week, they will enter the conference tournament as the third seed from the West Division. The Eagles would have the tie-breaker over UM-Rolla due to better division record and they would have the head-to-head tie-breaker over UM-St. Louis.
Leading the Eagles is sophomore forward
Jasmine Baines (Jeffersonville, Indiana), junior guard
Katie Thiesenhusen (Muskego, Wisconsin), and freshman point guard
Keisha Collins (South Holland, Illinois).
Baines, who has averaged 22.0 points in USI's last five contests, ranks third in the GLVC with a team-high 14.3 points per game (ppg). Baines, who leads the team with 5.2 rebounds per game (rpg), also ranks ninth in the GLVC in field goal percentage (.506).
Thiesenhusen is second on the squad and 21st in the conference with 11.8 ppg, while Collins is third on the team and 27th in the league with 11.0 ppg. Collins also ranks fourth in the GLVC in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.66) and fifth in assists (4.04) while Thiesenhusen is fourth in the conference in steals (2.14), fifth in three-point field goals made (1.79), and eighth in three-point field goal percentage (.391).
UM-Rolla (14-10, 8-9 GLVC, 4-6 West) hosts UM-St. Louis (15-10, 8-9 GLVC, 4-6 West) tonight before traveling to Evansville Thursday. The Lady Miners defeated the Eagles, 60-47, to start the GLVC schedule and lead the all-time series between the two schools, 3-0.
The Lady Miners, who have lost eight of their last 11 games, snapped a four-game losing streak with their 74-62 victory over Rockhurst University this past Saturday. Junior guard Nicole Dierking leads UM-Rolla with 12.1 ppg, while senior guard Deosha Agnew is averaging 10.7 ppg and a team-best 7.9 rpg. Sophomore guard Jaime Forsberg, who is averaging 9.5 ppg, leads the Lady Miners with 4.2 assists per game (apg).
USI leads the all-time series with UM-St. Louis, 19-9, after defeating the Riverwomen, 58-52, in St. Louis earlier this season. The Riverwomen, who are 3-10 since 2000 against the Eagles, are coming off an 84-47 setback to No. 3-ranked Drury University this past Saturday after winning their previous four games.
UM-St. Louis is led by junior center Jennifer Martin and sophomore guard Courtney Watts. Martin is averaging a team-best 12.3 ppg and 6.3 rpg, while Watts, who leads the Riverwomen with 3.2 apg, is second on the team with 10.4 ppg.
