SLIAC Weekly Release - January 18

This week in the SLIAC is a weekly review of the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. Read the recaps of the prior weeks results and highlights of upcoming events. You can also find the latest standings, statistics, schedules and awards.

HEADLINES

Feature Friday with Brock Butler (January 13, 2017)
This week's Feature Friday interview is with Iowa Wesleyan University men's basketball player Brock Butler. Brock talks about basketball, fitness, Fresh Prince.....MORE

Haring Notches 500th Career Assist (January 17, 2017)
Fontbonne University senior women's basketball player Emmie Haring dished out seven assists in the first-half against Iowa Wesleyan University on Monday afternoon, on her way to nine assists; giving her 500 for her career.....MORE

SLIAC Game of the Week: Principia at Westminster (January 17, 2017)
This week's SLIAC Game of the Week is a meeting with implications in the men's basketball standings as Westminster College hosts Principia College. The game is set for Tuesday, January 17th at 7 p.m.....MORE

SLIAC PLAYERS OF THE WEEK

The SLIAC Players of the Week are honored for their performances during the week. Click on the sport link below to see the full list of 2016-17 Players of the Week. For this week's Player of the Week release - HERE

Men's Basketball l Women's Basketball

SLIAC WINTER STANDINGS

AROUND THE SLIAC

	The Blackburn men's basketball team has a big week in terms of the playoff hunt. The Beavers, who are currently in fourth place in the standings with a 5-3 record will face the team right above them (Greenville) and right behind them (Eureka) in the standings. DeAndre Manuel is the Beavers leading scorer at 13.6 points per game while Chris Davis is averaging 13.3 points and Jake Maestranzi is averaging 12.9 points per game.
	Eureka sophomore Kerrigan Dura was named 2017 Fast Pitch News NCAA Division III Preseason All-American. Dura is coming off a year in which she broke the Eureka single-season record for runs batted in in a season with 66, most in the SLIAC. She hit .556 last season and finished with 27 doubles,three home runs, and a .596 on-base percentage while earning First Team All-Conference honors.
	Fontbonne will host cross-town rival Webster University on Wednesday night in a SLIAC double header. The Griffins women's team is currently 7-9 overall and 3-4 in the SLIAC while the men's team is 2-13 overall and 2-6 in conference play. The women's game is set to begin at 6 p.m. while the men will tip at 8 p.m.
	The Greenville women's basketball team will be looking to stop a two game losing streak. The Panthers are now 9-6 overall and 4-3 in the SLIAC, dropping them down to a tie for fourth place in the SLIAC standings. The Panthers will face Blackburn on Wednesday before hosting Webster on Saturday.
	Iowa Wesleyan has announced the hiring of Chris Early as the new head coach of the Women's Soccer program. Early is a nine year veteran of coaching, most recently serving as a volunteer assistant coach at the University of Iowa. He has also spent time with Iowa Soccer Association, Iowa City Alliance Soccer Club, and Northwestern State University. Early is a graduate of the University of Iowa. For full story click HERE
	After going winless in their first 11 games of the season the Highlander men's basketball team has won two of their last three games. The Highlanders notched their first win two Saturdays ago over Eureka and then this past Monday defeated Webster 68-59. Brent Long led the Highlanders in the win with 26 points and 10 rebounds. MacMurray shot 50-percent from the floor as a team and forced 18 turnovers in the game.
	Principia had their two game winning streak snapped on Monday in a 67-51 loss to Westminster. Parker Davidson was the team's leading scorer with 16 points, also grabbing 10 rebounds. The Panthers are battling for a spot into the SLIAC Tournament and currently have a 4-4 conference record, a half game out of the final spot. They will close out their play this week with a road game against Spalding on Saturday.
	The Spalding women's basketball team will begin a three game road trip on Wednesday night when they face MacMurray. The Golden Eagles will then travel to Eureka on next Thursday before heading out to Iowa Wesleyan the following Saturday. Spalding is currently 8-6 overall and 3-4 in the SLIAC. They sit in a tie for sixth place in the standings, but are just two games out of second place.
	The Webster University women's basketball team tied a program record for points in a game during their 106-69 win over MacMurray on Monday afternoon. The Gorloks scored 60 points in the first-half with their bench piling up 71 points. Jaysea Morgan led the Gorloks with 19 points while Jade Sawyer finished with 17 points. The win also kept the Gorloks tied for second in the SLIAC standings.
	Westminster senior infielder Erica Burney was named a Preseason All-American by Fast Pitch News. Erica Burney was named to the NFCA All-American Third Team as well as NFCA All-Region and became the program's first SLIAC Player of the Year. Burney finished in the top three in the conference in batting average (.540), home runs (11) and runs batted in (54).  She also set a program record for doubles with 15.

THIS WEEK'S SLIAC SCHEDULE
To see a complete schedule of this week's SLIAC action click HERE

KEEP UP WITH THE SLIAC ON SOCIAL MEDIA
Be sure to keep up with the SLIAC using various social media platforms. You can follow us on Twitter (@sliac) HERE , Facebook (St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference) HERE , or on Instagram (@SLIAC) Don't forget to share your game day photos from around the conference by using #SLIACtion on your tweets.

Be sure to check out the SLIAC Feature Friday interview series. Each Friday we will feature interviews with student-athletes, coaches, and administrators from around the SLIAC. You can also view our previous feature videos, where you can get to know our student-athletes outside of athletics and get an idea of what it is like to be a NCAA Division III student-athlete, as well as conference tournament highlight videos.