EVANSVILLE, Ind. – Spring action opens for the University of Evansville women’s golf team this weekend with the Motor City Classic in Orlando, Fla.

Rio Pinar Country Club will play host to the Motor City Classic, which is operated by Oakland University.  Joining Oakland and Evansville in the field at St. Thomas, Creighton, Cleveland State and Northern Kentucky.

Play will take place on Monday and Tuesday with par set for 72 and the yardage at 6,049.

Leading the Purple Aces in the fall season was the duo of Mallory Russell and Kate Petrova.  Russell led the squad with a 78.00 stroke average with a low round of 73 coming at the Coyote Creek Classic.  She picked up two top 15 finishes.  Petrova completed the fall with a 78.69 average.  Her top performance came at the Braun Intercollegiate where she rallied to finish in a tie for second place.

Allison Enchelmayer and Magdalena Borisova rounded out UE’s top four in the opening part of the season.  Enchelmayer average 80.21 strokes while earning a tie for 8^th at the Braun Intercollegiate.  Borisova completed the fall with a mark of 81.00 and tied Kate Petrova for the second position at the Braun Intercollegiate.

CHICAGO, Ill. – University of Evansville junior diver Madison Rollett (Evansville, Ind./Reitz) set a new personal-best score on the three-meter boards on Saturday, and freshman Levi McKinney (Boonville, Ind./Boonville) posted a season-best mark in the one-meter competition, as the UE diving squad competed in its final tune-up before the conference championship season by participating in the UIC Diving Invitational in Chicago, Illinois.

Rollett recorded a personal-best score of 260.40 in the three-meter competition to place sixth out of 24 competitors on the women’s side.  That score eclipsed her previous three-meter high-score of 248.35, which she set in winning the title at the A3 Performance Invitational back in November.

McKinney, meanwhile, set his season-best mark in the men’s one-meter competition with a score of 254.55 to place eighth out of 14 competitors.  It topped his previous season-best score of 254.03 set in a diving dual meet against Southern Indiana back in October.

“Today was a good final tune-up before the conference meet season, as the competition level was very high, and that is the level of competition that we’ll see at conference,” said UE assistant coach for diving Dustin Bredemeier.  “For both Madison and Levi to go out and post their best marks of the year today on the different boards is a good sign heading into the conference championships.”

Rollett also posted a sixth-place finish in the one-meter competition with a score of 245.90, the fourth-best one-meter score of her UE career.  McKinney, meanwhile, posted a score of 229.90 in the men’s three-meter competition.

The UE divers will now prepare for the conference championship season upcoming.  The women’s Missouri Valley Conference Swimming & Diving Championships will take place in Iowa City, Iowa from February 15-18.  Meanwhile, the men’s Mid-American Conference Championships will take place in Oxford, Ohio from March 1-4.

EVANSVILLE, Ind. – University of Southern Indiana Men’s Basketball lost a heart-breaker in a wild overtime game to Morehead State University, 71-66, Saturday afternoon in front of a Screaming Eagles Arena record crowd of 3,644 on Homecoming. The Eagles go to 13-12 overall and 6-6 in the OVC, while the MSU Eagles are 16-9, 9-3 OVC.

USI found itself is down by six, 35-29, at the end of the first 20 minutes. The six-point Morehead margin at the break was the largest by either team in the half that featured nine lead changes and two ties.

The second half did not start off in favor of the Screaming Eagles as the MSU Eagles extended the halftime margin to 11 points, 40-29, with 17:47 left. USI erased the deficit the with an 18-6 run to regain the lead, 47-46, on a hook shot by senior forward Jacob Polakovich (Grand Rapids, Michigan) with 9:29 on the clock.

The USI run would extend to 23-6 over a 10 minute span and expanded the Screaming Eagles’ lead to six points, 52-46. USI was a blistering 10-of-14 from the field and three-of-four from downtown and was led by graduate forward Trevor Lakes (Lebanon, Indiana) with eight of the 23 points.

USI would maintain the six-point advantage for several minutes before Morehead State used a 6-0 run to tie the game, 54-54 with 1:50 to play. The MSU Eagles regained the lead and led 59-56 when freshman guard Jack Campion (Milton, Wisconsin) hit a three from the right side with no time on the clock to send the game into overtime, 59-59.

In the overtime, USI and Morehead State traded buckets until the MSU Eagles took the lead for good on a pair of free throws with 25 seconds left, 67-66. Morehead State would add four free throws on a foul and a USI bench technical to close out the 71-66 final. USI’s final lead of the game came at 66-65 on a three-point bomb by senior guard Jelani Simmons (Columbus, Ohio).

Individually for the Screaming Eagles, USI was led by sophomore guard Isaiah Swope (Newburgh, Indiana) with 21 points. Swope was nine-of-17 from the field, one-of-four from beyond the arc, and two-of-two from the field.

Lakes rounded out the double-digit scorers for the Eagles with 16 points. The graduate forward was six-of-13 from the field and four-of-10 from long range.

Next Up For USI:
USI returns to the road next week for a quick trip to play Tennessee Tech University in Cookeville, Tennessee. Tipoff is set for 8 p.m. and will air live on ESPNU.

The game also will be streamed on ESPN+ (with cable subscription) in addition to being heard on ESPN 97.7FM and 95.7FM The Spin.

TTU watched its season go to 11-14 overall and 7-5 in the OVC after defeating Southeast Missouri State University, 82-80, this afternoon at home. The Golden Eagles were led by graduate forward Jaylen Sebree with 22 points.

Thursday match-up between USI and TTU will be the first meeting between the two programs in men’s basketball.

Following the quick trip to TTU, the Eagles come home February 11 and will host Lindenwood University for Senior Day. Tipoff is tentatively scheduled for 8 p.m.

Aces return home Wednesday

CHICAGO – For the first time since scoring 21 points against Bellarmine on Dec. 21, Kenny Strawbridge Jr. reached the 20-point mark in Saturday’s 70-61 loss to UIC inside Credit Union 1 Arena.

Strawbridge drained nine of his career-high 23 attempts in the game to score a game-high of 20 points.  Antoine Smith Jr. and Marvin Coleman II registered 10 apiece.  UIC was led by Steven Clay’s 17 points.  Jace Carter posted 15 points and 12 rebounds while Tre Anderson added 15 tallies.

“We had some good moments today but we need to sustain and build on it,” UE head coach David Ragland said.  “I thought we did a lot of good things in the first half and took UIC out of their rhythm.  Even when things were not looking good in the second half, our guys continued to respond and fight back.”

UIC opened the game with a 3-pointer but it was Evansville who would quickly take the lead and hold it for the majority of the period.  Yacine Toumi posted six of the Purple Aces’ first eight points of the game while Kenny Strawbridge Jr. took a steal the length of the floor for a layup that put UE up 8-5.

Triples from Marvin Coleman II and Strawbridge solidified a 14-9 edge and UE would continue to add to it.  Antoine Smith Jr. converted Evansville’s third triple of the game at the 6:17 mark to give his team a 26-16 lead.  Unfortunately, the rest of the half belonged to the Flames, who outscored the Aces by a 13-4 margin to cut UE’s lead to 30-29 at the half.

With 2:05 remaining in the half, Evansville held a 30-24 lead before UIC took advantage of a late turnover to complete the half on a 5-0 run to make it a 1-point game.

Two free throws on the first possession of the final period gave UIC its first lead since the opening minutes of the game.  Smith wasted little time on the ensuing trip down the floor as his putback saw Evansville retake the advantage.  Evansville went up by a 34-31 score with the Flames countering with six in a row.

As the game entered the final 13 minutes, a triple pushed the UIC lead to 44-37 while making it a double-digit game for the first time when a jumper by Christian Jones gave the Flames a 48-37 lead.  Evansville had opportunities to get back within single digits but UIC slowly added to its lead, which held strong at 59-43 inside of four minutes remaining in the game.

After UE made a free throw to get within 15, UIC put the game out of reach with a 5-0 run that made it a 20-point game.  Despite the deficit, the Aces continued to fight back, getting with 12 with just over a minute showing on the clock.  Preston Phillips added a dunk in the final minute to cut the deficit to nine, but the run came up just short with the Flames taking the game by a 70-61 final.

In total, the Flames opened the second half on a 35-14 run to establish the 20-point advantage.  They shot 43.5% for the game but excelled in the final stanza, shooting 53.8%.  Evansville wrapped up the day at 33.9%.

UE returns home on Wednesday for a 7 p.m. game against UNI.