Battling all contest, the University of Evansville dropped a road game, 59-44, at Illinois on Sunday afternoon in Champaign, Ill.
Helping lead the Aces, freshman Abby Feit led Evansville with a team-best 19 points, hitting five threes, while recording eight boards and three steals. In just her second game in white and purple, junior Lola Bracy scored 15 points, following up her 25-point performance on Friday night. Leading the Illini was Petra Holesinska, who tallied 25 points, knocking down seven triples.
The contest opened in an ideal fashion for the Aces as Evansville jumped out to a 6-0 advantage on a pair of three-pointers by Feit. Illinois answered with five-straight points, but it was Feit who pushed the Aces’ lead back to three on a layup with 6:31 left in the opening quarter. Evansville responded to Illinois’ response, as Lola Bracy hit a triple and Jada Poland got to the rim for a layup to give UE a 13-8 lead. To close the period, Illinois hit two threes, going on a 6-0 run to take a 14-13 lead after 10 minutes of action.
The second quarter saw a better offensive rhythm for the Illini, while the defense for Illinois created turnovers. Despite that, Evansville contiued to battle taking back the lead on two different occasions, including an important triple by Feit that earned a 22-20 advantage for the Aces. After the the Aces locked down on defense on the other end to cut their deficit to three at halftime.
A pair of three-pointers by Illinois’ Holesinska helped the Illini take an eight-point advantage out of the break at 38-30. In the period, Evansville got down as large as 10, but cut a point off its deficit at 48-39 to close the third quarter.
A personal 5-0 run for Bracy helped fuel Evansville in the fourth quarter. Bracy out-scored the Illini single-handedly in the first six minutes of the quarter, while the Aces held Illinois scoreless. Bracy’s final bucket of the run forced an Illinois timeout. Coming out of thee timeout, the Illini took control, holding Evansville off the scoreboard and recording an 11-0 run to grab the 59-48 win.
Evansville was out-rebounded in the game, 53-38, but forced the Illini into 24 turnovers, a season-high for Illinois.
The Aces head back to Meeks Family Fieldhouse for their final home game of 2019 on Wednesday when Evansville welcomes in Chicago State for its Ugly Christmas Sweater Game at 6 PM.
