USI takes streak into Friday’s new game date against Western Illinois
EVANSVILLE, Ind. – University of Southern Indiana Women’s Basketball opened its season-long four-game homestand inside Liberty Arena on Thursday night with a 73-57 victory against Eastern Illinois University for the Screaming Eagles’ fifth consecutive overall win and eight straight win at home.
Following Thursday’s triumph and a loss by Western Illinois University earlier in the evening at Morehead State University, USI Women’s Basketball (14-4, 8-1 OVC) moved into sole possession of first place.
In Thursday’s win, junior forward Chloe Gannon dropped a game-high 21 points, one off her career-best 22 points from earlier this season. Gannon was 9-17 from the floor and added six rebounds. Senior guard Ali Saunders tallied 14 points with four boards and seven assists. Junior guard Sophia Loden recorded 12 points with five rebounds.
Collectively, USI shot for over 43 percent (30-69) overall with four triples and went 9-17 at the foul line. The Screaming Eagles had a season-low seven turnovers while forcing 21 EIU turnovers on the defensive end, including 12 takeaways by the USI defense. The Eagles outscored the Panthers 46-20 in the paint.
Eastern Illinois, which had two players finished in double figures, was just over 40 percent shooting from the floor (22-54), had five three-pointers, and went 8-10 at the charity stripe. The Panthers matched the Eagles with 37 rebounds.
Following a defensive start to the contest with nearly four scoreless minutes, Saunders got USI on the scoreboard first. Saunders scored twice more over the next couple of minutes to push USI to an 8-2 advantage just past the five-minute mark of the opening quarter. With 2:15 left in the first period, Saunders drained a three-pointer followed by a layup by junior guard Shannon Blacher to give the Screaming Eagles a 15-7 lead through the first 10 minutes.
Sophomore guard Lexi Sepulveda came off the bench and scored a pair of buckets for a spark in the early minutes of the second quarter. By the halfway point of the second, USI claimed a nine-point lead, 25-16. A minute later, the Eagles’ lead reached double figures, 27-16, on an inside look by Gannon. Gannon tacked on another bucket with two minutes left in the first half. USI ended up taking a 33-22 lead into halftime.
Gannon started the second half where she left off at the end of the first half, connecting on a jumper to reach double digits for the game. Eastern Illinois tried to bring the deficit back to within single digits, but Blacher answered twice to keep USI ahead by more than 10 points. Thanks to another made basket by Gannon, the Screaming Eagles led 44-32 at the midway point of the third quarter. While Eastern Illinois cut back to within seven, USI responded as Gannon kept rolling offensively and a late make by Loden gave USI a 53-41 lead through three quarters of play.
Loden picked up where she left off at the end of third, scoring eight straight points within the first 1:15 of the fourth period to increase USI’s lead to 20, 61-41, and joining Gannon in double figures. A few minutes later, Saunders went into takeover mode with a three-point play and then scoring another layup to also hit double digits for the contest. Gannon reached the 20-point threshold just past the five-minute mark of the fourth, as the Eagles led 68-51. The final exclamation point in Thursday’s win came when freshman forward Alli Robertson drained a straightaway three in the final minute.
The Screaming Eagles are back in action inside Liberty Arena on Friday at 5 p.m. when USI hosts Western Illinois University. The game was pushed up from Saturday to Friday due to inclement winter weather in the forecast on Saturday. Friday’s game, featuring a battle of the top two teams in the Ohio Valley Conference standings, can exclusively be seen with a subscription to ESPN+ and heard on The Spin 95.7 FM and WREF 97.7 FM.
