Warrensburg, Mo. (Jan. 28, 2000) -- One of their toughest stretches of their schedule looms ahead for the Central Missouri State University basketball Jennies as they play four games in the next eight days, all against teams that are ranked in the top 10 of the latest NCAA Division II South Central Region ratings.

The Jennies host nationally ranked Emporia State University on Saturday for Youth Night/Alumni Night and Pittsburg State University on Monday for Faculty-Staff Spirit Night, then hit the road for two straight games, playing at nationally ranked Truman State University on Wednesday and Missouri Western State College on Feb. 5. All of the games except for the Truman encounter, which starts at 7:45 p.m., will begin at 5:30 p.m. and all four will be broadcast on KLRQ Radio of Clinton, Mo. (96.1 FM), with air time slated for 15 minutes prior to tipoff. The broadcasts can also be heard via the Internet on KLRQ's web site at http://www.klrq.com or TEAMLINE (dial 1-800-846-4700, use access code 3946 and a credit card).

In the latest regional rankings released on Tuesday, the Jennies were sixth for the third week in a row. Southwest Baptist was the top-rated team, while Emporia State was third, Truman State was fifth, Missouri Western was seventh and Pittsburg State was tied for eighth.

The Jennies will enter Saturday's game with a 14-2 overall record and a 7-1 conference mark, which ties them for first place in the MIAA standings with Emporia State. They are off to their best overall start since the 1995-96 squad began the season with a 15-1 record and their best league start since the 1990-91 team won its first 10 conference outings. They have won their last six games, 13 of their last 14 and 22 of their last 26 overall dating back to the final month of the 1998-99 campaign after beating Washburn University 65-47 and Missouri Southern State College 73-63 at home on Jan. 19 and Jan. 22, respectively, and knocking off 22nd-ranked Southwest Baptist University 72-55 in Bolivar, Mo., on Jan. 25.

Ninth-ranked Emporia State will enter Saturday's encounter with similar records of 14-2 and 7-1. The two-time defending conference and regional champion Lady Hornets bounced back from a 74-72 loss at Southwest Baptist on Jan. 18 to post home victories over Truman (108-72) and Pittsburg State (84-62) on Jan. 22 and Jan. 26, respectively. ESU leads the MIAA in virtually every statistical category, including scoring offense (95.9 ppg), scoring defense (56.6 ppg) and scoring margin (39.3 ppg), while boasting the league's top individual scorer (Tara Holloway, 20.8 ppg), play-maker (Jennifer Perine, 8.8 assists pg), shot blocker (Myshka Wilkerson, 1.3 pg) and defender (Emily Bloss, 3.8 steals pg).

Pittsburg State will put an 11-5 overall record and a 4-4 conference mark on the line Saturday when it hosts Truman. The Gorillas, who are sixth in the MIAA, have lost their last two outings, falling 70-57 at home to SBU on Jan. 22 and 94-62 at ESU on Wednesday. CMSU won 78-53 at PSU back on Jan. 3.

Truman will take an 11-4 overall record and a 6-2 MIAA mark into Saturday's game at PSU and will play at Washburn University on Monday. The 24th-ranked Bulldogs, who are tied for third place in the league standings with SBU and MWSC, have won three of their last four outings. They had a modest two-game win streak halted with a 108-72 loss at ESU on Jan. 22, but topped the University of Missouri-Rolla 86-53 at home on Wednesday. Truman beat the Jennies 72-70 in Warrensburg back on Jan. 5.

Meanwhile, Missouri Western will enter Saturday's game at Southwest Baptist with a 12-4 overall record and a 6-2 conference mark. Western will host Emporia State on Monday and play at Pittsburg State on Wednesday before entertaining the Jennies on Feb. 5. The Lady Griffons, who are tied for third in the MIAA with SBU and TSU, are one of the league's hottest teams, having won their last five outings since losing 84-49 at CMSU on Jan. 8. They beat Missouri Southern State College 75-56 at home on Wednesday.

The Jennies lead the all-time series with all four opponents. CMSU is 22-10 against Emporia State, 11-8 versus Pittsburg State, 38-4 against Truman and 16-12 versus Missouri Western.

Quickly becoming their trademark, scoring spurts proved to be key for the Jennies in their three recent wins. They overcame a 22-20 first-half deficit in the Washburn game with a 17-2 run over the final 6:22 of the period and were down 37-29 late in the first period against Missouri Southern, but used a 29-9 surge over the final 59 seconds of the stanza and the first 10:25 of the second half to forge ahead. The SBU game was tied 51-51 with 12:02 to play, but CMSU scored 21 of the game's final 25 points to post the victory.

Against SBU, the Jennies were led by center Katie Vaske [So., Bancroft, Iowa, Bishop Garrigan H.S. (Algona, Iowa)] with 14 points, while center Nicole Cassmeyer (So., Jefferson City, Mo., Blair Oaks H.S.) and guard Molly Knobbe (So., Cimarron, Kan., CHS) each had 12 and guard-forward Marlies Ozias (Jr., Centerview, Mo., Crest Ridge H.S.) had 10. In the MSSC game, forward Kelly Sutton (Jr., St. Louis, Mo., Parkway South H.S./Univ. of Evansville) came off the bench to tally 19 points, while Ozias had 13, Knobbe had 12, and Cassmeyer and guard Carlonda Pettiford (Fr., Indianapolis, Ind., Lawrence Central H.S.) both had 10 off the bench. Against Washburn, guard Lori Nichols (So., Nevada, Mo., NHS) led the way with 17 points, while Ozias scored 13 and Vaske had 10. Nichols did not play against Missouri Southern and saw only 17 minutes of action against SBU because of an ankle injury suffered in practice on Jan. 21.