Noe scores 22 as hot-shooting Drake defeats Aces in road trip finale

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  Graduate guard hits six three-pointers as Aces end three-game road swing

 

DES MOINES, Iowa - In its final game of a three-game road trip, the University of Evansville women’s basketball team shot 41% from the field and hit nine three-pointers, but fell to hot-shooting Drake, 107-66, on Sunday afternoon in Des Moines, Iowa.

“You have to be on top of your game and ready to go against a team like Drake. You can’t afford to have “bad” anything,” said Aces head coach Matt Ruffing. “You have to give Drake credit. They’re high-powered and they’re so good. We settled too much for outside shots and I wish we could have attacked more. I thought we struggled on both ends today and that number 66 should be a lot higher.”

Graduate guard Hannah Noe paced Evansville with 22 points on six made threes while sophomore guard Macie Lively added 12 points on 5-8 shooting from the field. The Bulldogs were led by Becca Hittner, who scored a game-high 23 points and gathered nine rebounds and four assists.

Drake sprinted out of the gate, out-scoring the Aces 13-3 to open the game and force an Evansville timeout. A three-pointer by Noe just past the halfway point of the quarter cut Drake’s lead to 10 at 19-9, but the Bulldogs then went on a 19-4 run to end the period. In the opening quarter, the Bulldogs shot 76.5% (13-17) from the field while hitting five of their six three-point attempts to take a 38-13 lead after 10 minutes of play.

The Aces battled in the second quarter as Drake continued to shoot 50% from the field. With 1:48 left in the second quarter, Evansville trailed 65-28, but the Aces manufactured an 8-0 run to close the period and narrow the Bulldogs’ lead to 65-36 at the halftime break.
To open the third quarter, Drake put together a 17-5 run to take an 82-41 lead midway through the quarter. Following the run, the Aces responded by closing the frame on a 12-7 spree, trimming the Bulldogs’ advantage to 89-53 heading into the fourth quarter. During the run, Noe tallied five of Evansville’s 12 points including a layup that ignited the run for the Aces.

Evansville saw some success defensively in the fourth quarter as the Aces held Drake to 44.4% (8-18) shooting and just 1-7 shooting from beyond the arc. Junior center Kelsi Scott helped convert for the Aces as she went to the charity stripe six times during the fourth quarter and made five of six attempts. Of Scott’s nine point in the contest, seven came in the final 7:07 of the fourth quarter. After Scott’s last two free throws cut Drake’s lead to 102-64, Drake answered with a pair of layups and an and-one free throw before Aces’ freshman guard Kayla Casteel hit a layup to wrap-up the scoring as the Bulldogs grabbed the 107-66 win.

The Aces committed their second-least amount of turnovers on the season with 12 against Drake, who turned the ball over 11 times themselves. The lowest turnover total for UE this season was on December 14 when Evansville recorded just 11 turnovers in a 96-59 win over Oakland City.

For the first time in 2018, Evansville returns home to Meeks Family Fieldhouse to take on Illinois State on Friday at 7 p.m. before closing the weekend against Bradley at 1 p.m. on Sunday.