LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The Bellarmine University women's basketball team concludes a busy week of play with a pair of Great Lakes Valley Conference contests at Knights Hall, including one against a top 10 opponent.
Bellarmine (8-8, 3-4 GLVC) will host sixth-ranked Drury (15-1, 6-0) at 5:45 p.m. (ET) Thursday before welcoming Missouri S&T (7-8, 2-5) for a 1 p.m. matchup Saturday.
Drury marks Bellarmine's second straight opponent ranked in the top 25. On Monday, the Knights faced Southern Indiana, which rose one spot to No. 21 in this week's WBCA poll. The Screaming Eagles captured a 67-59 victory over Bellarmine.
The Knights played even with Southern Indiana for much of the game, but the Screaming Eagles took control during a roughly 10-minute stretch bridging the third and fourth quarters and there was too much ground to make up for Bellarmine. Senior guard
Raven Merriweather registered her seventh 20-point outing of the season in scoring a game-high 22 points while senior forward
Beth Bowers chipped in 11 points in recording her eighth double-digit performance in the last 10 contests.
Drury, which is riding a 13-game-winning streak and is coming off a 57-46 Monday victory over Truman State, leads the GLVC in scoring offense (76.9), and the Panthers also are particularly adept at forcing turnovers. Drury leads the league in turnover margin at plus-6.88 per game, and the Panthers harass their opponents into nearly 24 turnovers per contest. Haley Diestelkamp, Alice Heinzler and Daejah Bernard comprise three of the GLVC's top 11 in steals per game.
Drury spreads the wealth offensively. Heather Harman (13.1) paces the Panthers in scoring, but Diestelkamp (12.9) and Heinzler (12.3) are right behind her. Lucia Fernandez (9.3) is also in the vicinity of double figures. Harman and Heinzler have combined for 69 trifectas, ranking fifth and sixth in the GLVC in 3-pointers made per game.
Missouri S&T will visit Southern Indiana on Thursday before Saturday's meeting with Bellarmine at Knights Hall. The Miners captured a 64-59 win Monday over William Jewell. Janie Arand (14.9), Maddie Raley (12.6) and Bria Pierce (10.0) all average double figures.
The Knights will wear pink jerseys on Saturday in honor of victims of cancer.
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