NOTEBOOK (PDF)
Still Perfect
Missouri State is now 14-0 in MVC play for the first time in school history. The Lady Bears join UConn (17-0), Florida Gulf Coast (14-0), UC Davis (8-0), Bucknell (8-0), SFA (12-0), South Dakota State (14-0), and Cal Baptist (12-0) as the only remaining teams perfect in league play.
Perfect Seasons
Only four times in the history of The Valley/Gateway has a team finished league play unbeaten. Southern Illinois did it in back-to-back seasons in 1985-86 and 1986-87, while Drake did it in 2016-17 and 2017-18. Three of the four teams went on to win the league tournament (no tourney in 1986).
Record Team Year MVC Finish MVC Tourney
18-0 DU 2017-18 1st Champs
18-0 DU 2016-17 1st Champs
18-0 SIU 1986-87 1st Champs
18-0 SIU 1985-86 1st N/A
Home Stretch
Seeding for Hoops in the Heartland (Mar. 11-14 in Moline, IL) is up for grabs this week as the final games of the MVC regular season will be played on Friday and Saturday.
To date, the league has played 76 games of the Conference’s 90-game regular-season schedule and is currently scheduled to play 86 of the 90.
The Bracket will be released following the conclusion of the regular season games on Saturday, March 6.
Elite NCAA Resume
Missouri State is once again putting together an elite NCAA Tournament resume. The Lady Bears are one of six teams with 11+ Top 100 NET wins (as of Feb. 28). Missouri State is 11-2 vs. the Top 100. Only Stanford, Louisville, South Carolina, Texas A&M, Georgia Tech and Missouri State have 11+ wins vs. the Top 100.
The Lady Bears are also one of only three teams with 6+ Top 100 road wins, joining Stanford and Texas A&M.
Missouri State has held every opponent to 73 points or less, including top 25 scoring offenses in Maryland (1st), FGCU (5th) and Drake (25th).
Rise of The Valley
The 2019-20 season tied the highest RPI ranking the MVC has recorded in its history showcasing how The Valley is becoming one of the best mid-major leagues in the country. The league also saw five teams in the Top 100 of the RPI for the first time since the 1998-99 season. In 2018-19, the league posted a top-15 RPI for the first time since 2012-13 a year after seeing the league’s worst RPI in 2017-18 (24). The Valley is looking to match or surpass last year’s record numbers in 2020-21.
Year MVC RPI Top 100 RPI Teams
2020-21 7 (NET) 5 (NET)
2019-20 8 5
2018-19 14 3
2017-18 24 2
Conference NET
The Valley ranks 7th nationally in the conference NET report. The Valley sits behind the SEC, ACC, Big 12, Pac-12, Big Ten and Big East entering this week.
NET Update
The latest installment of the NCAA NET Report (Mar. 1) has five Valley teams that rank in the top-90, including eight in the Top 155. Missouri State leads the way at No. 21 with Drake (46), Illinois State (63), UNI (76), and Bradley (87), rounding out the schools in the Top 90.
The Valley joins the ACC, Big 12, Big East, Big Ten, Pac-12 and SEC as the only leagues nationally with five teams in the NET Top 90.
The Valley joins only the Power Five leagues in having eight teams ranking in the Top 155.
Streaks in League Play
Missouri State ran its win streak vs. Loyola to 16-straight over the weekend, establishing the longest active streak in the MVC. The Ramblers last win over the Lady Bears was on Jan. 12, 2014 (63-61).
UNI stretched its streak vs. Evansville to 15-straight with a pair of wins over the weekend. The Aces last win vs. UNI was on Jan. 8, 2014 (59-50)
Climbing the Chart
Bradley senior Gabi Haack moved up to No. 5 in MVC history with 267 career triples after adding five to her total in Thursday’s loss to Illinois State. Haack enters the week five away from moving into 4th on the all-time list.
MVC Career Three-Pointers
1. 294 - Dayna Finch, Creighton 2001-04
2. 277 - Rishonda Napier, Southern Illinois 2014-17
3. 276 - Brittany Schoen, Indiana State 2008-12
4. 271 - Kari Koch, Missouri State 2002-06
5. 267 - Gabi Haack, Bradley 2017-present
Polling
Missouri State remained No. 23 in this week’s AP Top 25 Poll. MSU moved up to No. 19 in the USA Today Coaches Top 25 poll (Feb. 23), marking its 31st-straight appearance in the poll.
BU: Dynamic Duo
Senior Gabi Haack and junior Lasha Petree continue to fill it up for the Braves with the pair combining for 34.1 points per game or roughly 49 percent of Bradley’s scoring. Averaging a league-best 17.7 points per game, Petree is trying to become the first player not from Drake to lead the league in scoring since UNI’s Jacqui Kalin in 2012-13 and join Shelli Braud (1987-88) as the only Bradley players to pace the Valley in scoring. Haack is second in the MVC in scoring in league games at 16.5 points per outing and became the first player in league history to hit 60 or more three-pointers in four different seasons last week. Since Bradley joined the MVC in 1983-84 the Braves have had only one other duo both average better than 15.0 points per game in the same season with Carrie Coffman (17.6 ppg) and Michelle Nason (16.6 ppg) doing so in 1994-95.
DU: Assist U
Drake recorded 27 assists – tied for their second-most of the year—on 30 field goals in the win over UNI. The Bulldogs, who led the nation in assists with 481 after the victory, have handed out 20 or more assists in 12 games this season.
UE: Climbing the Record Books
Less than 50 games into her career, Abby Feit is already moving up the record books. Feit’s 66 blocks place her in eighth in Evansville program history in the statisical category.
ILS: Rivalry Sweep
ISU had five players score 11+ points en route to completing the season sweep of I-74 rival Bradley on Thursday, 79-59. It was the first time the Redbirds have swept the Braves in the regular season since the 2011-12 season. Both wins also came by double digits, marking the first time ISU has swept Bradley with a pair of double figure wins since the 2008-09 season.
INS: Double Double
Adrian Folks and Marie Hunter put up strong numbers on Wednesday evening to help propel Indiana State to a senior night victory over Evansville, 85-69. Both athletes put up double-doubles, including 23 points and 13 rebounds from Folks and 17 points and 10 rebounds from Hunter. Wednesday’s performance marked Hunter’s first career double-double and the first time two Sycamores recorded a double-double in the same game since Jamyra McChristine and LeAndra Echi accomplished the feat against CSUN on Nov. 30, 2019.
LUC: Plenty to Build On
Despite dropping both of its matchups with Missouri State, Loyola gave the No. 23/19 Lady Bears a pair of tests, keeping both games in doubt well into the fourth quarter on both nights. The Ramblers limited a vaunted Missouri State offense to an average of just 61.5 points across the two-game set, nearly a full nine points below its season average in scoring. In Saturday’s series finale, the Maroon & Gold held the Lady Bears to just 59 points, tied for their second lowest total in a game this season.
MSU: Historic Defense
Missouri State is allowing 57.6 points per game this season, on pace for second-best defensive average in school history behind the 1973-74 team that yielded 45.9 points per contest. Only six times previously have the Lady Bears given up fewer than 60 points on average, most recently in the 2003-04 season.
UNI: New Valley Record
UNI made 21 three-pointers Sunday against Evansville for the best single-game total by any Missouri Valley Conference basketball team in league history (women’s & men’s). The Panthers were efficient in their record-setting performance by knocking down treys on a season-best 56.8% clip. Drake held the previous mark of 20 set on Feb. 9, 2018 at Evansville. UNI’s 21 three-pointers are tied for the fourth-best single-game total in NCAA DI history and the most of any team in a game where it also held the opponent without any three-pointers.
SIU: Moving On Up
Makenzie Silvey averaged 17.5 points over the weekend to continue to move up SIU’s all-time scoring list. She passed Dyana Pierre for seventh on Saturday and now sits just 15 points shy of passing Petra Jackson for sixth on Southern’s all-time list. Silvey could become the first player in program history to amass at least 1,400 career points/400 rebounds/250 assists/200 three-pointers/150 steals in a career. The Glen Carbon, Ill. native needs seven boards and four steals to accomplish the feat.
VALPO: On A Roll
Valpo’s series sweep at SIU - its first sweep in conference play this year - extended its winning streak to four consecutive games, its longest winning streak within conference play since joining the MVC. In fact, the last time Valpo won four straight conference games came to close out the 2006-07 regular season in its final season as a member of the Mid-Con. Valpo has also now won three consecutive road conference games, the first time since January 2007 it has won three straight road games in conference play.
Historic From Deep
Valpo finished 15-for-20 from 3-point range in Saturday’s win at SIU. The 75% clip Valpo hit at from deep matches a program record. It previously hit 75% at Western Michigan on Dec. 19, 2012, but that mark was achieved on just 9-of-12 shooting. The 75% mark is the best this year by a D-I women’s team attempting at least 20 triples, bettering the 68.2% clip (15-for-22) Maryland hit at against Iowa just four days ago. Going back even further, a few other teams in the past decade have matched Valpo’s 15-for-20 mark in a single game, but none have shot better on at least 20 attempts since Tennessee went 16-for-21 from downtown on March 6, 2011.
Hoops In the Heartland
The Missouri Valley Conference will conduct its 14th neutral site postseason women’s basketball tournament when the event takes the hardwood at TaxSlayer Center in the Quad Cities, on Thursday-Sunday, March 11-14, 2021. The MVC Tournament, also known uniquely as “Hoops in the Heartland” to Valley fans, will be played at TaxSlayer Center in the Quad Cities for the sixth-straight year, despite last year’s event being cancelled due to COVID-19. (
TOURNEY CENTRAL)
All nine games of the 2021 MVC Women’s Basketball Tournament will be available live on ESPN+ via the ESPN app.
This week's Missouri Valley Conference Player and Newcomer of the Week are Missouri State's Jasmine Franklin and Drake's Grace Berg.
MISSOURI VALLEY CONFERENCE PLAYER OF THE WEEK:
Jasmine Franklin, Jr., F, Missouri State
Jasmine Franklin averaged 17 points and 12.3 rebounds in Missouri State’s three wins, shooting 54 percent overall and 79 percent at the foul line with six steals and two blocks. Franklin collected career-high 17 rebounds in Sunday’s game against Loyola, the most at MSU since 2009 and tying for the No. 7 single-game total in school history. She added three steals and 12 points for her eighth double-double of the season, all in MVC play. Saturday against the Ramblers, Franklin scored a career-high 25 points on 11-for-13 shooting to go with 11 boards and two steals. Wednesday at Southern Illinois, Franklin totaled 14 points, nine boards, two blocks and a steal.
Other Notable Performances: Gabi Haack (BU); Grace Berg (DU); Abby Feit (UE); Mary Crompton (ILS); Adrian Folks (INS); Allison Day (LUC); Kam Finley (UNI); Makenzie Silvey (SIU); Shay Frederick (VU)
MISSOURI VALLEY CONFERENCE NEWCOMER OF THE WEEK:
Grace Berg, RSo., F, Drake
Grace Berg scored a game-high 18 points in Drake’s win at UNI in the team’s lone contest last week. Berg started hot with eight points in the first five minutes of the game. She has scored double figures in 20 games this season. Berg finished 7-of-14 from the floor with one three and went 3-of-3 from the free throw line and added six rebounds and two assists in 25 minutes. Berg is second in the MVC in scoring at 16.7 points per game while leading the league in shooting at 54.2 percent and free throw percentage at 84.0 percent.
Other Notable Performances: TeTe Danso (BU); Rylie Stephens (UE); Terrion Moore (ILS); Sitori Tanin (LUC); Kayba Laube (UNI); Lauren Gunn (VU)