Noe scores game-high 23 points as Evansville drops MVC Tournament opener

Graduate guard Hannah Noe scored a game-high 23 points as the University of Evansville women’s basketball team dropped its 2018 Missouri Valley Conference opener to Bradley, 77-49, in Moline, Ill. on Thursday night.

“Our team had a really good week of practice going into the tournament. You play a team like Bradley that’s a really tough opponent for us considering what happened the first two times we played they won by an average of 51.5 points. We knew the start of the game was going to be critical for us and I actually thought our players did a really nice job with the gameplan and our execution and we had the lead early and I told them that if we could do that, hopefully we could just keep building the confidence on both ends and then hopefully at some point Bradley would start getting a little tight and a little nervous considering the situation and what has happened in the prior games but they went on a run there towards the end of the first and just kind of took control of the game and we just didn’t have an answer for them,” said Aces head coach Matt Ruffing. “We’ve got a lot of work to do in the offeseason. You don’t want to have a season like we had before and hopefully all the bad luck we had this year will be done now since the season is over and we have a lot of good luck moving forward.”

Noe led all-scorers on the night with 23 points on 7-of-14 shooting from the field and 3-of-6 shooting from beyond the arc. Joining Noe in double-figures was sophomore center Kaylan Coffman who finished with 10 points, seven rebounds, and a career-high five blocks. The Braves were led by Gabi Haack with 20 points, hitting five three-pointers, adding seven rebounds, an assist, and a steal.

Evansville opened the game strong both offensively and defensively as the Aces jumped out to a 9-4 lead with 6:54 left in the first quarter. The Braves cut the Aces’ advantage to just one at 9-8 just over a minute later, but following the media timeout, junior guard Kerri Gasper hit a pair of free throws to push Evansville’s lead to three at 11-8 with 4:44 remaining in the opening period. Over the final 4:07 of the quarter, Bradley manufactured a 16-0 run to close the period as the Braves grabbed a 24-11 lead following the opening 10 minutes.

In the second quarter, Coffman opened the frame with a jumper to stop the Braves’ run. Following Coffman’s basket, Bradley put together a 16-3 run pushing its lead to 40-16 with 1:16 left on the clock in the period. With 1:01 left in the quarter, sophomore guard Macie Lively drained a three-pointer to trim Bradley’s lead to 40-19, but the Braves closed the period with a pair of free throws as Bradley took a 42-19 advantage into the half.
The Aces kept pace with the Braves to start the third quarter as Evansville and Bradley traded baskets with Coffman scoring the first six points of the frame for UE as the Braves held 48-25 lead with 4:28 left in the period. Bradley put together an 8-0 run to move its advantage to 56-25 with 1:37 remaining in the quarter. Evansville closed the period on a 4-0 run on a basket by sophomore guard Marley Miller and two free throws from Noe that cut the Braves’ lead to 56-29 after the third quarter.

Noe put together an impressive performance in the fourth quarter as she scored 12 points in the first 4:34 of the frame, trimming Bradley’s lead to 20 at 65-45 with 5:26 left in the quarter. After a 7-0 Bradley run, Noe added two more points and Gasper contributed two of her own as the Braves’ lead sat at 23 at 72-49. To close the game, the Braves went on a 5-0 run as Bradley captured the 77-49 win.

Bradley out-shot the Aces, 40.8% (29-71) to 31.3% (15-48), while the Braves also earned an advantage in rebounds, 47-32.

The Aces end their season with a 3-27 overall record and an 0-18 mark in MVC action. This season Evansville broke the program and MVC records for best single-season team free throw percentage (82.0%), while Noe sits fourth in program history in single-season three-pointers (70), Gasper sits second in single-season free throw percentage (92.3%), Coffman sits sixth in single-season blocks (49), and junior center Kelsi Scott sits tied for ninth in field goal percentage (50%).