CARBONDALE, Ill. — The University of Evansville women’s basketball team travels west to Southern Illinois and Missouri State this weekend.
A quick start to the Purple Aces game against Valparaiso didn’t last in a 66-54 loss to the Beacons last weekend. UE led 14-10 at the end of the first quarter but had a season-low second quarter. A 50% plus third quarter from the field wasn’t enough for an Evansville comeback in the second half.
The Aces’ held their second annual National Girls and Women in Sports Day game against Valpo last week. UE Athletics hosted 85 area girls 8th grade and under for a girls sports clinic followed by watching the basketball game. Evansville had a season-high attendance for Saturday’s game in Meeks Family Fieldhouse with over 600 fans in attendance.
The Aces head into the second half of Missouri Valley Conference play hungry for a second conference victory. UE will start against the one MVC team they did pick up a win against in the first 10 Valley games, Southern Illinois. On their home court, the Aces led for over 35 minutes in the 85-70 win. Evansville will look for its first victory in Carbondale since 2017 on Friday night.
The Salukis also have one Valley win after the first half of conference action. SIU beat Indiana State 63-58 on the road before seeing the Aces in mid-January. The win at the Hulman Center was one of only two road wins for the Salukis so far. But Southern Illinois has a single home win at the Banterra Center from December in their Elementary Field Trip game. SIU and leading scorer forward Gift Uchenna will try for their first home conference win Friday.
UE will wrap up its road trip over the weekend with the team’s final MVC game at Great Southern Bank Arena. The Missouri State Lady Bears are in their final season in the Missouri Valley Conference and are currently tied for second in the league with two other teams. Missouri State has only lost to two Valley teams so far with both losses coming on the road to UIC and Illinois State. The Lady Bears continue to be led by senior guard Lacy Stokes who is averaging 12.3 points and four assists a game.
After sitting out a game for a foot injury in mid-January sophomore forward Maggie Hartwig (Sauk City, Wis. / Sauk Prairie HS) is back to her high scoring ways. Hartwig led Evansville in scoring in back-to-back games at home last week. She also picked up her fifth double-double of the season in 35 minutes against the Beacons with 21 points and 12 rebounds. Hartwig is sixth in the MVC with five double-doubles on the year. She is also fifth in the Valley in scoring, averaging 16.2 points a game.
With another double figure outing on Saturday freshman guard Camryn Runner (Cicero, Ind. / Hamilton Heights HS) leads the Aces with 19 double-digit scoring games. In 21 games, Runner has only had two single digit outings with both coming against other Valley teams. But when Runner wasn’t scoring in double figures, she was leading UE in rebounds during those two games.
