EVANSVILLE, Ind. – The University of Evansville women’s basketball team treks to Iowa this weekend for a pair of conference games, beginning on Friday at Drake. Tip-off from Des Moines is set for 6 PM.

Series History   
– Friday marks the 57th meeting between Evansville and Drake
– Drake leads the series 42-14
– Evansville is looking for their first win in Des Moines since 2014

Runner Does it All
– On Sunday at Indiana State, Camryn Runner matched her career-high with 30 points
– The performance was Evansville’s 21st 30-point game in program history
– Against the Sycamores, Runner also became the second player in the country to tally 30 points, nine rebounds, seven assists, and two blocks in a game this season
– Entering the weekend, Runner is the only player mid-major player in the country and one of six players nationally to average 17 points, 5.5 rebounds, 4.5 assists, and 1.5 steals per game

Leveling Up
– At Indiana State, freshman Sydney Huber notched a new career-high with 18 points, sinking four three-pointers
– All 18 of Huber’s points came in the second half
– This season, the sharpshooter has connected on 31 three-pointers (7th in MVC) and scored 7.2 ppg
– In conference play, Huber has upped her scoring to 9.9 ppg

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.

EVANSVILLE, Ind. – University of Southern Indiana Men’s Basketball lost an overtime battle with Eastern Illinois University, 59-51, Thursday evening at Liberty Arena. The Screaming Eagles go to 4-14 overall and 1-7 in the OVC, while the Panthers are 8-11, 4-4 OVC.
 
USI senior guard Ismail Habib hit a three-pointer and junior forward Tolu Samuels posted a layup to get the Screaming Eagles a 5-0 lead to start the game. The Eagles would extend the lead to seven, 11-4, with 12:26 left in the half.  
 
After hitting an offensive drought for five minutes, USI junior guard Amaree Brown added four free throws on back-to-back trips to push the lead to eight, 15-7. The Eagles would go on to extend the margin to 10 points, 24-14, on a driving layup by senior forward Ola Ajiboye.
 
The Panther, however, would chip away at the USI lead and close to within three at the intermission, 27-24.
 
EIU would start the second half by knotting the score 29-29 in the first three minutes of the second half. USI would re-extend the margin to five points twice before the Panthers muscled their way back into a tie, 39-39, with 10:20 left.
 
After USI regained the advantage, 41-39, on a driving layup by Habib, EIU scored five unanswered to take its first lead of the game, 44-41. Senior guard Steven Clay put the Eagles back into a tie, 44-44, on a three-pointer, while Samuels gave the Eagles back the lead, 46-44, on a dunk with 4:11 to play.
 
The Panthers would outscore the Eagles in the final four minutes, 6-4, and force overtime. USI had the ball with 13 seconds to play but was not able to convert before the final buzzer in regulation.
 
In overtime, USI got the initial lead, 51-50, on a free throw by Brown before EIU took command to win the overtime 9-1 and the game, 59-51.
 
Brown and Habib led the Eagles in scoring with 17 points and 12 points, respectively. Samuels recorded his seventh double-digit game on the boards with a game-high 11 rebounds.