Missouri Western is back on the road Saturday as they travel to Maryville to play rival Northwest Missouri State. This will be the fourth game away from home in their last five as the Griffons will try and bounce back from a 79-61 loss at home to Emporia State on Tuesday.
MWSU dropped to 3-9 this season with that loss to ESU. Missouri Western was led by sophomore
Kameron Freemyer as she scored a career-high 13 points on Tuesday and tied a career-high with five rebounds.
Mychaell Gray added eight points and a career-high six rebounds, while
Simone Rodney had a big night off the bench. Rodney scored seven points, had a career-high eight assists, a career-high four steals and tied a career-high with five rebounds.
Northwest is 5-9 this season as they stopped a three-game skid Tuesday with a 63-46 win at Missouri Southern. The Bearcats are led by freshman Molly Hartnett as he averaged 15.4 points, 4.8 rebounds and 2.2 assist per game. St. Joe native Jaelyn Haggard is second in scoring at 9.9 per outing. Austin Meyer is in his third season as the head coach of the Bearcats as he is 25-47 overall and 15-37 in the MIAA.
This is the second meeting between the two teams as Northwest rallied to defeat Western 51-50 at the MWSU Fieldhouse on December 12.
Mychaell Gray led the Griffs with 11 points in that game and
Logan Hughes scored 10. Missouri Western outrebounded the Bearcats 40-25 despite the loss.
MWSU leads the all-time series 41-22 and they're 16-14 in games played in Maryville. The Griffons had won four straight in the series and 12 of the last 13 before falling in December. Missouri Western has won five of the last six meetings inside Bearcat Arena.
RESCHEDULED GAMES
Missouri Western had to postpone three games last month after pausing all team activities and now all three games have been rescheduled. The Fort Hays State game from Saturday, January 16 will now be played at Hays on Monday, February 8 at 5:30 p.m. The Newman game from Thursday, January 21 has been rescheduled for Monday, February 15 at 5:30 p.m. inside the MWSU Fieldhouse. And the Griffons home game with Central Oklahoma from Saturday, January 23, will now be played February 24 in St. Joseph.
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 - 992 (41.3% of teams total minutes)
Sophomore - 458 (19.1%)
Junior - 286 (11.9%)
Senior - 664 (27.7%)
MINUTES PLAYED PER YEAR OF EXPERIENCE IN THE PROGRAM
1st Year – 1436 (59.8% of teams total minutes played)
2nd Year – 900 (37.5%)
3rd Year – 64 (2.7%)
POINTS SCORED PER CLASS
Freshman - 290 (39.4% of teams total points)
Sophomore - 193 (26.2%)
Junior - 84 (11.4%)
Senior - 169 (23.0%)
POINTS SCORED PER YEAR OF EXPERIENCE IN THE PROGRAM
1st Year – 443 (60.2% of teams total minutes played)
2nd Year – 272 (37.0%)
3rd Year – 21 (2.9%)
ON THE GLASS
MWSU leads the MIAA in offensive rebounds (13.0) this season and they are fourth in the league to rebounds per game (38.6). MWSU has had at least 38 rebounds in eight games and they've added 11 or more offensive rebounds in eight games this season.
DEFENDING THE 3
The Griffons are now second in the MIAA in three-point field goal percentage defense (26.9%). Only two opponents have shot better than 40% from three this season. Western has held eight teams to under 40% shooting overall and they've held seven opponents to 67 points or less this season.
FORCING TURNOVERS
Missouri Western has forced 20 or more turnovers four times this season and 14 or more in eight games. They rank fifth in the MIAA in turnovers forced per game (15.9).
