University Of Southern Indiana Women’s Basketball To Hosts NAIA Opponent Lindenwood University-BellevilleÂ
USI (7-1), which has won seven straight games, is led by senior center Kacy Eschweiler (St. Charles, Missouri) and senior guard Alex Davidson (Salem, Indiana). Eschweiler is averaging a team-best 13.8 points and 8.6 rebounds per game, while Davidson is chipping in 13.1 points per game and a team-high 4.4 assists per appearance.
Sophomore forward Imani Guy (Columbus, Indiana) and sophomore guard Emma DeHart (Indianapolis, Indiana) is averaging 10.0 and 9.8 points per game, respectively, while junior guard Ashley Johnson (Louisville, Kentucky) is chipping in 8.9 and 8.1 points per game, respectively.
Tuesday’s meeting is the first-ever matchup between the Eagles and Lynx in women’s basketball. The game will be broadcast on 95.7 The Spin and on the GLVC Sports Network, while live stats, audio, and video links are available at GoUSIEagles.com.
USI Women’s Basketball Notes
• Eagles open GLVC play with the wire-to-wire win over Knights. USI Women’s Basketball jumped out to a 10-0 lead and never trailed as it earned a 77-70 win over Bellarmine in its GLVC-opener Saturday night. Senior center Kacy Eschweiler and sophomore guard Kennedy Williams led the Eagles with 13 points apiece, while senior guard Alex Davidson and junior guard Ashley Johnson added 12 and 11 points, respectively.
• Johnson comes up big. Johnson scored nine of her 11 points against Bellarmine in the second half and was instrumental in a two of the three runs that defined the game. She had a team-high five points in USI’s 23-10 run that turned a 29-28 lead late in the first half into a commanding 52-38 advantage with four minutes to play in the third quarter. She scored four points in USI’s game-clinching 7-1 run that turned a 66-64 edge into a 73-65 cushion with less than a minute to go in the game.
• Stein notches another milestone. Head Coach Rick Stein picked up his 200th GLVC win with the Eagles victory over Bellarmine. USI’s win over Lincoln Memorial earlier this year marked the 500th time Stein has been on the bench for an Eagle victory. Stein was an assistant coach under USI Hall of Famer and current Bellarmine Coach Chancellor Dugan for 159 wins from 1991-99 and has amassed a program-record 346 victories in his 19-plus seasons at the top of the USI Women’s Basketball program.
• Eagles in midst of second-longest home win streak. The Eagles extended their home winning streak to 27 games with their win over Bellarmine Saturday. It is USI’s second-longest home winning streak in program history. USI won 33 straight games at the PAC from 1996-98 and 23 straight home games from 2000-02.
• 20-point efforts. Guy’s career-high 25 points in USI’s win over Michigan Tech marked a season-high for the Eagles and made her the fourth different Eagle to notch a 20-point game this season. USI has had eight different players reach double-figures in the scoring column this year and six different players reach double-figures multiple times.
• Up next. USI hosts NAIA foe Lindenwood-Belleville Tuesday evening in their final game of a seven-game homestand.
• About Lindenwood-Belleville. The Lynx are 3-7 following a split in conference play last weekend. Junior guard Brianna Mueller is averaging 19.5 points per game to lead the Lynx, while junior guard Hailey Erdman is chipping in 12.1 points and 3.7 assists per contest.
• Around the corner. Good news: after a busy November-early December, the Eagles will get some rest with just two remaining games in the final month of 2018. Bad news: Those two games are against Central Missouri and Ashland. Central Missouri upset Ashland in last year’s NCAA II National Championship game, while Ashland, currently ranked No. 1 in the nation, has not lost a regular-season game since February 4, 2016.
• GLVC Tournament Points Rating System. After one week of conference action, the GLVC Tournament Points Rating System (GTPRS) has the Eagles in a tie for fourth with Drury and Lewis. The GTPRS will determine the participants and seeding of the GLVC Tournament in 2018-19.
• Record book watch. One player is currently in USI’s record books:
–Kacy Eschweiler is 11th in blocks (63), 27th in rebounding (395) and is 41st in scoring (610).
• Magic Mark: 75 points. The Eagles are 405-75 (.844) all-time when scoring at least 75 points. USI is 278-26 (.915) since 1996-97 when reaching the 75-point plateau.
