EVANSVILLE, Ind.—University of Southern Indiana Women’s Basketball concludes the 2016-17 regular-season Thursday at 5 p.m. (CST) when it visits No. 20 Bellarmine University in a clash between Top 25 teams at Knights Hall in Louisville, Kentucky.
The game can be heard on WSWI 95.7 FM, while live stats, audio and video can be accessed at GoUSIEagles.com. Thursday’s game will be aired live on NCAA.com and tape-delayed on American Sports Network.
While Thursday’s game has little bearing on the Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament—USI is locked into the No. 2 seed, while Bellarmine will be either the No. 3 or No. 4 seed—Thursday’s contest carries plenty of weight in the NCAA II Midwest Region Tournament picture.
USI (23-4, 15-2 GLVC), which jumped three spots to No. 19 in the latest Division II Media Poll and one spot to No. 23 in the latest WBCA Top 25 Coaches’ Poll, trailed Bellarmine in the NCAA II Midwest Region rankings last week. The Screaming Eagles were No. 8, while the Knights were No. 7. Updated regional rankings will be released Wednesday.
The Eagles are looking to avenge the 88-83 loss they suffered to Bellarmine last month at the Physical Activities Center. Despite leading by as much as eight points and holding the lead for 24 minutes, a 9-0 Bellarmine run late in the fourth quarter sank the Eagles’ chances of an upset.
Since then, however, the Eagles have gone on to win nine of their last 10 games to capture the GLVC East Division title, while Bellarmine has lost four of its last 10 games.
A win Thursday would give the Eagles their fourth straight victory and their first 16-win season in GLVC play since the 2001-02 campaign. It also would give USI a three-game lead in the final GLVC East Division standings.
Junior guard/forward Kaydie Grooms (Marshall, Illinois) and senior guard Tanner Marcum (New Albany, Indiana) lead the Eagles, offensively. Grooms is averaged 15.3 points per game, while Marcum is chipping in 13.9 points and 3.3 assists per contest.
USI Women’s Basketball Notes
- Eagles win GLVC East Division title.USI Women’s Basketball won the GLVC East Division title outright after defeating McKendree, 70-48, Saturday. It is USI’s first Division title since the Eagles claimed the East Division championship with a 12-6 mark in 2010-11.
- Last week’s leaders.The Eagles went 2-0 to close out their 2016-17 home schedule last week. Led by junior guard/forward Kaydie Groomsand senior guard Tanner Marcum, USI had six players average at least 7.0 points per game and eight players with at least 5.0 points per game. Grooms and Marcum each averaged 13.5 points per contest, while junior guard Randa Harshbarger dished out 5.0 assists per outing.
- GLVC Tournament positioning.USI enters its regular-season finale locked into the No. 2 seed in the GLVC Tournament, while Bellarmine could slip to the No. 4 seed with a loss and a Lewis win. Even if USI and Drury finish in a tie, Drury would have the tie-breaker over USI after defeating Missouri-St. Louis on the road—USI lost to UMSL in St. Louis.
- Fifteen GLVC wins.USI reached the 15-win plateau in GLVC play for the second time in three years and the first time since 2014-15. The last time the Eagles won 16 games in GLVC play was 2001-02, when they went 16-4.
- Midwest Region rankings.The Eagles are ranked No. 8 in the first NCAA II Midwest Region rankings. The next ranking comes out Wednesday.
- Back to Pod play.The Eagles finish the regular-season against their four-team GLVC East Division pod. USI is 4-1 against its pod this year and is 19-4 since pod-play began in 2013-14.
- Eagles two wins shy of 25-win plateau.The Eagles are just two wins shy of reaching the 25-win plateau for the second time in three years and the sixth time in program history. USI has reached the 25-win plateau three times under Head Coach Rick Stein.
- USI moves up in Top 25.The Eagles moved up three spots in this week’s Division II Media Poll and one spot in the latest WBCA Coaches’ Poll. USI is ranked No. 19 in the Media Poll and No. 23 in the Coaches’ Poll. USI also is No. 16 in the latest Herosports.comDivision II rankings.
- Groom closing in on 1,000-point plateau.Junior guard/forward Kaydie Groomsneeds just 19 points to become the 17th player in program history to eclipse the 1,000-career point plateau.
- Stein vs. Dugan.Head Coach Rick Steinsquares off against his former boss, Chancellor Dugan, for the 10th time when USI plays Bellarmine Thursday. Stein was an assistant coach under the USI Hall of Famer during her eight-year career with the Eagles. Dugan led the Eagles to the 1997 NCAA II Championship game. Dugan took a 5-4 lead in the all-time series between the two after Bellarmine’s win last month.
- Scouting the opposition (Bellarmine).Senior forward Sarah Galvin averages 15.7 points per game and 7.5 rebounds per game to lead the Knights, who have won two straight games and four of the last five.
- Record book watch.Several players are in USI’s record books:
–Tanner Marcum is ninth in steals (163), 10th in assists (225), and 12th in scoring (1,097);
–Kaydie Grooms is 19th in scoring (981), is 18th in blocks (46), and 29th in rebounds (379).
–Randa Harshbarger is eighth in assists (253);
–Hannah Wascher is eighth in blocks (67), 22nd in rebounds (421) and 36th in scoring (683);
–Morgan Dahlstrom is 20th in blocks (41) and 20th in rebounds (431).
- USI in statistical rankings.USI begins the weekend leading the GLVC in 10 statistical rankings and is in the top six of 17 GLVC statistical categories. The Eagles are ranked in the top 25 of 10 NCAA Division II statistical rankings.
