Game Notes

Date: February 20, 2021
Time: 1:00 PM
Location: Bolivar, Mo.

Bolivar, Mo. - Southwest Baptist will be hosting the University of Illinois-Springfield Prairie Stars for the final home game of the season. The Bearcats will be looking to bounce back from a loss and send the seniors out with a big win.

SCOUTING THE BEARCATS
In their first year as full-time members of the Great Lakes Valley Conference, the SBU Women's Basketball team finished 15-13 (9-11 GLVC) on the year. The GLVC allows just 8 teams to make the conference tournament. Finishing 10th out of 16 teams in the GLVC, the Bearcats narrowly missed the conference tournament for the second straight year.

The Bearcats are led by experience with seniors Kyleigh Vaught, Sydney Bandy, and Regan Tibbits as the top three scorers with all three averaging in the double digits. Tibbits also leads the team in rebounding with 5.0 rebounds per game. Southwest Baptist is currently in second place in the conference in free throw percentage with a 77.6% mark. 

Southwest Baptist is coming off a close loss to Indianapolis where they outscored the Greyhounds 23-18 in the fourth quarter but fell 66-77 in the end. Brylee Graddy came off the bench to lead the Bearcats in scoring with 13 points. The Bearcats spread the ball out in their scoring attack with Brylee Graddy, Kyleigh Vaught, and Regan Tibbits all having 3 assists. Sydney Bandy crashed the boards hard with a team leading 5 rebounds.

SCOUTING THE ILLINOIS-SPRINGFIELD PRAIRIE STARS
The Illinois-Springfield Prairie Stars are led by junior Lauren Ladowski who is knocking down 40% of her shots for 18.0 points per game along with 5.3 rebounds per game. Ladowski also turns it on defensively with 2.8 steals per game. Sophomore Malea Jackson is the second leading scorer for the Prairie Stars with 13.6 points per game. Makenna Fee is leading the team in rebounds with 6.0 while coming off the bench. The Prairie Stars off coming off a big win on the road at Rockhurst where Ladowski dropped 22 points thanks in part to a 12-13 performance at the charity stripe. 

THE COACHES

SBU head coach Kelsey Keizer begins her seventh season on the SBU bench after compiling a 81-90 (44-74 conf.) record while at SBU. Coach Keizer led two Bearcats to All-GLVC honors last season, and fell just short of the conference tournament as the GLVC takes only 8 teams to the postseason tournament.

Casey Thousand is in her second season with Illinois-Springfield after serving as an assistant coach for three years at Northern Michigan. In her first season with the program Thousand led the Prairie Stars to the second-most wins in the program's NCAA era. UIS set a program-record in points per game since moving to the NCAA in Thousand's first season.

ALL-TIME SERIES
Southwest Baptist leads the all-time series against UIS 4-0 with the latest win coming in the 2019-20 season 85-83 in an overtime thriller.