Missouri Western will play for the first time in two weeks on Thursday when they travel to Warrensburg to square off with No. 17 Central Missouri (10-2) at 5:30 p.m.  The Griffons paused all team activities last week after having positive COVID-19 results among its Tier 1 personnel.

MWSU will try to stop its six-game losing streak as they play UCM for the second time this season.  The Jennies won the first match up in St. Joseph, 67-48, on December 5.  The Griffons led 11-9 after the first quarter last month, but the Jennies outscored Western 23-10 in the second quarter and 21-13 in the third to pull away for the win.  Josie Weishaar scored a career-high 16 points for MWSU and Camille Evans added 10.  Missouri Western shot just 35.4% from the field and committed 23 turnovers, but did force Central Missouri into 16 turnovers and they shot just 39.0%.  UCM has won three straight games after dropping back-to-back games to UNK and at UCO.

Central Missouri leads the all-time series 42-30, including a 26-8 mark at Warrensburg.  Missouri Western has had a hard time winning at the Multipurpose Building as the Jennies have won four straight at home and 12 of their last 13 on their home floor against MWSU.

NEW & NOTES
RESCHEDULED GAMES
Missouri Western had to postpone three games last week after pausing all team activities, and two of the three have been rescheduled.  MWSU is still working on rescheduling the Central Oklahoma game that was originally supposed to be played on Saturday, January 23.  The Fort Hays State game from Saturday, January 16 will now be played at Hays on Monday, February 8 at 5:30 p.m.  And the Newman game from Thursday, January 21 has been rescheduled for Monday, February 15 at 5:30 p.m. inside the MWSU Fieldhouse.

YOUTH MOVEMENT
Missouri Western is relying on many young players this season after graduating six seniors and losing all five starters off their 21-8 team last season.  The Griffons have nine first-year players and just six that played in a Griffon uniform prior to this season.

MINUTES PLAYED PER CLASS
Freshman - 791 (43.9% of teams total minutes)
Sophomore - 312 (17.3%)
Junior - 194 (10.8%)
Senior - 503 (27.9%)

MINUTES PLAYED PER YEAR OF EXPERIENCE IN THE PROGRAM
1st Year – 1109 (61.6% of teams total minutes played)
2nd Year – 679 (37.7%)
3rd Year – 12 (0.7%)

POINTS SCORED PER CLASS
Freshman - 229 (43.1% of teams total points)
Sophomore - 123 (23.2%)
Junior - 56 (10.5%)
Senior - 123 (23.2%)
 
POINTS SCORED PER YEAR OF EXPERIENCE IN THE PROGRAM
1st Year – 342 (64.4% of teams total minutes played)
2nd Year – 189 (35.6%)
3rd Year – 0 (0.0%)

ON THE GLASS
MWSU leads the MIAA in offensive rebounds (12.4) this season and they are eighth in the league to rebounds per game (36.9).  MWSU has had at least 38 rebounds in five games and they've added 11 or more offensive rebounds in five games this season.

DEFENSE
The Griffons are third in the MIAA in three-point field goal percentage defense (27.3%).  Only two opponents have shot better than 40% from three this season.  Western has held five teams to under 40% shooting overall and they've held six opponents to 67 points or less this season.

FORCING TURNOVERS
Missouri Western has forced 20 or more turnovers three times this season and 15 or more in six games.  They rank sixth in the MIAA in steals per game (7.0).

STARTING TO VALUE THE BALL
After starting the season by committing 19 or more turnovers in five of their first seven games, the Griffons have had just 11 turnovers in each of their last two games.