NOTEBOOK (PDF)

League Leaders
Drake and Missouri State’s 5-0 league starts match 26 others who have started with five-straight league wins in 2018-19. The MVC is one of 11 leagues to have two unbeatens left in league play (through Jan. 21).

NCAA Teams With Perfect League Marks
8-0    BYU
7-0    Marquette, Rutgers
6-0    Middle Tennessee State, Norfolk State, Notre Dame, Oregon, Quinnipiac, Rider, Robert Morris, Sacred Heart, Stanford, Tennessee Tech
5-0     Baylor, Boise State, UConn, UCF, Drake, Hartford, Lamar, Missouri State, Mississippi State, NC A&T, NC State, Rice, SF Austin, VCU, Western Kentucky
4-0    Florida Gulf Coast
3-0    Chattanooga, Mercer

Missouri State is now 5-0 in MVC play for the sixth time in school history and first time since the 2004 team won its first 11 league games. The Bulldogs have opened league play 5-0 three out of the last four seasons. 

Lady Bears Streaking
Missouri State has won eight consecutive games overall and 12 in a row in MVC play. The stretch of 12 straight league wins began on Feb. 9, 2018, and ties for the third-longest Valley streak in school history and longest since a record 24 consecutive wins in 1999 and 2000.

Leading the Pack 
Drake’s Sara Rhine and Becca Hittner currently rank as the top two scorers in The Valley, ranking No. 1 and No. 2 respectively.  Rhine is averaging 19.3 points per game, while Hittner is averaging 18.2 a contest.  Only one time in the league’s history has a teammate tandem finished the season ranking No. 1 and 2 as Drake’s Wanda Ford (24.2 ppg) and Julie Fitzpatrick (23.1 ppg) led the way during the 1984-85 season. 

Valley Streak 
Drake has the longest win streak in the history of the Gateway/MVC for regular season contests, winning 45-straight.  The impressive streak started Feb. 26, 2016 with a win over Loyola.  The Bulldogs broke SIU’s 37 game streak from 1985-1987 during the Gateway era with a win over Illinois State last season.  The streak is the second longest active streak against conference opponents, trailing only UConn’s streak in the American. 

1,000 Point Club
Evansville’s Kerri Gasper became the seventh active MVC player to join the 1,000 career points club Friday.  Gasper scored 11 points in the Aces’ loss to Loyola becoming the 20th player in Evansville history to reach the milestone.

Drake has four active players are second nationally behind Marquette and Notre Dame (each with five).

Currently the Bulldogs have equalled Missouri State’s Casey Garrison, Christiana Shorter, Jaleshia Roberson, and Jasmine Malone who all had at least 1,000 points when the 2011-12 season ended. 

Current MVC Players in 1,000 Point Club
1,379 - Maddy Dean, Drake
1,361 - Sara Rhine, Drake
1,204 - Becca Hittner, Drake
1,177 - Meredith Hamlet, Valparaiso
1,164 - Ellie Howell, UNI
1,030 - Sammie Bachrodt, Drake
1,009 - Kerri Gasper, Evansville

MVC Players Approaching 1,000 Points
883 - Becca Jonas, Drake

Elite Profile 
Drake’s three Top 25 RPI wins (Rutgers, South Carolina and South Dakota) trail only Notre Dame (5), Baylor (4) and Oregon (4) and are tied with Mississippi State (3). Drake’s seven games vs. RPI Top 25 teams is the most in the nation (Data through Jan. 20).

1st Home Loss
UNI loss to Drake broke up the Panthers’ three-game win streak and UNI’s perfect 7-0 record at home on the season. 

Get Out Those Brooms
Loyola picked up a pair of hard-fought victories this past weekend, defending its home floor against Evansville, 61-56, and Indiana State, 56-54, respectively.  This past weekend marked Loyola’s first weekend MVC sweep since Feb. 5-7, 2016. 

Double Your Pleasure
Bradley’s Chelsea Brackmann is the only MVC player averaging a double-double this season.  The junior is averaging 12.5 points and 11.1 rebounds per game (leads MVC, 20th nationally).  Brackmann has nine double-doubles on the season. Below are players with six or more double-doubles. 
  
No.    Player, Team            
9        Chelsea Brackmann, Bradley
7        Abby Brockmeyer, Southern Illinois
6       Sara Rhine, Drake
        Simone Goods, Illinois State

Looking to Stop the Streak
Evansville  has dropped 24-straight MVC regular season contests, equaling the MVC record set by Bradley (1998-00) and Southern Illinois (2010-12).  The Aces will host UNI on Friday looking to break the streak. 

Consecutive Conference Losses
    1.     24, Bradley    2/26/98 to 1/13/00
            24, Southern Illinois    12/31/10 to 1/14/12           
           24, Evansville    12/29/17 to present

Sharp Shooters
A year after seeing Evansville lead the nation in free-throw percentage (82.0%), The Valley has two of the nation’s top five teams in the category so far this season. Loyola currently leads the league and sits 2nd nationally, while UNI sits 5th. 

Loyola’s Abby O’Connor leads The Valley and ranks No. 2 nationally hitting 95.6% of her attempts. In 2012-13, UNI’s Jacqui Kalin set the MVC record with a percentage of 95.5% for a season. 

Free-Throw Percentage
    1.    Virginia Tech    80.1%
    2.     Loyola    78.8%
    3.    Princeton    78.3%         
           Oregon    78.3%
   5.    UNI    78.2%

The RPI Ratings Game
The latest installment of the NCAA RPI Report (Jan. 21) has six Valley teams that rank in the top-175, led by Drake at No. 11, followed by UNI (79), Missouri State (92), Indiana State (158), Southern Illinois (166) and Bradley (171). The MVC ranks 12th among 32 conferences. The league ranking is the highest for the league since the 2013 season (finished 10th).