Aces end skid with 62-46 victory over Bradley

Dickey scores 23 as UE picks up its first MVC win

EVANSVILLE – It may have been a cold, snowy day outside of the Ford Center on Sunday afternoon, but inside, visiting Bradley had no answer for the hot shooting of Sara Dickey as the University of Evansville women’s basketball team picked up a 62-46 victory over the Braves.

“I’m happy for our girls because they’ve worked extremely hard, and it was just a matter of time before we would put it all together,” UE head coach Oties Epps said. “We still have some things to work on, but we executed our game plan, and we did a lot of good things today.”

The win marked the first of the Missouri Valley Conference season for the Aces, who moved to 2-13 overall and 1-3 in league play. Meanwhile, Bradley dropped to 4-10 and 0-3, respectively.

Dickey, who moved up to fifth all-time in the UE history books on Friday night, enjoyed one of her most efficient outings of the year, going 8-for-14 from the field and 4-for-7 from distance to end with a game-best 23 points.

“This was a good opportunity for us today, and hopefully it will be a spark for us going into the rest of conference play,” Dickey said. “Our main focus was to attack. Everyone was able to penetrate and drive, and that opened it up for me to hit some three-pointers.”

Joining her in double figures in the contest was Sasha Robinson, who logged her first double-double of the season with 10 points and 14 rebounds. Kenyia Johnson also continued her impressive run of performances at the Ford Center, racking up eight points, five rebounds and five assists.

The Aces wasted little time in getting rolling as Johnson and Dickey keyed a 15-4 run to start the contest. As was the case on Friday night, UE came out determined to find opportunities driving towards the rim, and the shots would fall early and often as the Aces out-scored the visitors from Peoria, Ill., 30-18 in the paint.

“I thought Aaliyah [Gaines] and Kenyia did a great job of getting downhill, which made the game a little bit easier, especially for Sara,” Epps said. “It wasn’t just about driving the paint. It was making the right reads too, which we did a better job of doing today than we did on Friday night.”

UE was able to maintain a comfortable lead throughout the second quarter, going into the break up 30-21, and it was the third quarter where the Aces put the game out of reach. Dickey drained a pair of three-pointers as the Braves called an early timeout, and UE would never look back, taking a 22-point lead at one point and out-scoring Bradley 20-10 in the frame.

“This was absolutely one of the best defensive performances that we’ve had all year,” Epps said. “We were able to protect the paint and force teams to shoot from the outside. We’ve lost games this year because teams were able to get inside of our defense, but that wasn’t the case today. We had a lot of energy and rotated well, and they did a great job out there.”

Bradley shot just 30% in the game, including an anemic 2-of-24 from beyond the arc.

The Aces will return to action next weekend with a trip to Carbondale, Ill., to take on Southern Illinois.

NOTES: UE is 19-26 versus Bradley … In home contests, the Aces are 12-10 … Sara Dickey scored 28 points and handed out seven assists in last season’s 86-46 win over Bradley at the Ford Center … Dickey now stands 39 points shy of No. 4 on UE’s all-time scoring list … Barb Dykstra, who graduated in 1986, currently occupies that spot with 1,430 career points.