University of Southern Indiana Track & Field begins its indoor season on Friday afternoon when it travels to the University of Indianapolis Winter Break Meet in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Senior distance runner Bastian Grau (Höchstadt, Germany) returns to lead the Screaming Eagle men on the track, looking to defend his national championship in the mile run. Grau also earned All-America honors in the distance medley relay and mile as well as All-Region honors in the mile, 3,000-meters and DMR.

Also on the track, junior middle distance runner Tyler Kruse (Fort Branch, Indiana) earned All-America after competing in the DMR with Grau and sophomore Javan Winders (Mansfield, Tennessee). Kruse set the second fastest times in USI history in the 800-meters and 600-meters a year ago.

Junior Ian Graves (Indianapolis, Indiana) is the top-returning sprinter for the Eagles, while senior Daniel Gibson (Normal, Illinois) will lead USI in the field. Freshmen Dallace Jones (Indianapolis, Indiana) and Andrew Pierce (Muncie, Indiana) are also expected to make an impact in the sprints.

For the USI women, they are led by distance runners in senior Melina Gryschka (Garbsen, Germany) and junior Hope Jones (Cumberland, Indiana). Last year, Gryschka earned a pair of All-America honors in the 3,000-meters and mile at Eastern New Mexico University, while Jones won the Great Lakes Valley Conference 5,000-meter run. Both are coming off of strong cross country seasons.

Senior Jessica Lincoln (Palatine, Illinois) was USI’s top 3,000-meter runner a year ago, having earned an NCAA II provisional time in the event and placed fifth at the GLVC Championships.

The lone competitor in the field for the Eagles is sophomore pole-vaulter Rylie Smith (Floyds Knobs, Indiana). Her vault of 9 feet, 5.75 inches last year is second in program history.

The UIndy Winter Break Meet is the first of eight regular season events in the 2017-18 indoor track & field season for USI. Friday’s meet will primarily be for sprinters and field events, as USI’s distance runners will not be competing.

The GLVC Indoor Championships are February 24-25 in Indianapolis with the 2018 NCAA II Indoor Championships March 9-10 in Pittsburg, Kansas.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – The University of Evansville women’s basketball fell to No. 20 Kentucky, 100-62, on the road inside Memorial Coliseum in Lexington, Ky. on Tuesday night.

“We got off to a bit of a bad start there and spotted them some points and a lot of that came from us turning the ball over,” said Aces head coach Matt Ruffing. “I felt like when we realized that was the case our toughness level went up. We lost the second quarter by five and won the third quarter by two because of that little stuff. From here on that’s something we can build off of. We hit some shots and they tried to go to a zone and we shot them out of the zone, which is always a good thing. This is a great atmosphere against the 20th-ranked team in America. I’m really proud of the way we fought coming out of halftime.”

For the third-time this season, graduate guard Hannah Noe led the Aces, scoring 23 points and knocking-down six three-pointers. Junior guard Kerri Gasper added nine points, four rebounds, and four assists, while redshirt sophomore guard Marley Miller contributed eight points and three boards. The Wildcats were led by Maci Morris and Tatyana Wyatt who each finished with 20 points with Wyatt recording a double-double with 10 rebounds.
Kentucky opened the contest on a 19-0 run before Noe drained a three from the top of the arc with 5:06 left in the first quarter to put the Aces on the board. Junior center Kelsi Scott backed down her defender and laid it off the glass for her first points of the night with 3:01 remaining in the opening period as the Aces trailed 33-5 after the first 10 minutes of action.

The Aces responded in the second quarter, putting together a 6-2 run midway through as Evansville’s deficit was 32 at 55-23 at the halftime break.

In the third frame, Evansville continued to show its resilience opening the quarter with a 12-7 advantage over the Wildcats in the first three minutes out of the break. The Aces intensity paid off in the third stanza as UE outscored the Wildcats, 22-20, in the quarter.

Noe poured-in her fifth three of the contest to open the fourth quarter and trim Kentucky’s lead to 27, but the Wildcats responded with a 9-0 run as Kentucky earned a 100-62 win.

Kentucky out-shot the Aces from the floor, 57.1% to 46.8%, and narrowly edged Evansville in three-point shooting, 47.1% to 42.1%.

Evansville returns to Meeks Family Fieldhouse for the first time in nearly three weeks when the Aces face Morehead State at 1 p.m. on Sunday.

Aces defeat Bowling Green, 91-76

BOWLING GREEN, Ohio – Sophomore Dru Smith registered a career-high of 25 points to lead the University of Evansville men’s basketball team to a 91-76 win over Bowling Green on Tuesday night at the Stroh Center.

Smith connected on 11 out of 13 attempts en route to his career mark.  He also had seven assists and five rebounds for the Purple Aces (7-2).  Blake Simmons knocked down four triples on his way to a 16-point evening while Noah Frederking had his best college game with 14 points.

“To go on the road like this and have so many guys contribute tonight was big for us,” UE head coach Marty Simmons said.  “We have a lot of respect for Bowling Green.  They are a good team and for us to come up here and win is a good night for the team.

Pacing the Falcons (7-3) was Justin Turner with 21 points.  Dylan Frye finished the night with 14 points while Nelly Cummings had 11.  Demajeo Wiggins led the way on the boards with 11 caroms.

Dainius Chatkevicius got the Aces on the board in the opening possession before Blake Simmons hit the first of his three first-half triples in a game-opening 7-2 run in the first three minutes of play.  Bowling Green took its first lead thanks to a 6-0 run.  Trailing 9-4, the Falcons grabbed their first advantage of the evening thanks to a Daeqwon Plowden bucket.

Evansville grabbed the lead right back on a Dru Smith layup before Simmons notched another from outside to make it a 14-10 game at the 12:30 mark.  BGSU cut the gap to just a point on three occasions in the final eight minutes of the half, but the Aces responded each time.  With 1:08 remaining, Smith’s 12^th point of the game gave UE its biggest lead at 44-35.

At the first half buzzer, Justin Turner made the difference with his 10^th tally of the game as his 3-pointer cut the UE lead to six points, 46-40, at halftime.  Smith led all players with 12 points in the period.

Bowling Green got right back within a possession to open up the second half when Derek Koch hit a triple before cutting the deficit to one at 46-45.  That is when the defense took over, keying a 6-0 run that saw three buckets scored on the fast break to push the lead back up to seven points at 52-45.

After BGSU cut the gap to five at 56-51, the Aces broke the game open with ten points in a row.  Smith connected on two more 3’s before Noah Frederking added another to give UE a 65-51 lead.  The advantage remained in double figures, reaching 18 with under four minutes remaining as the score was 85-67.

UE held strong in the final minutes, clinching their seventh win of the year by a final of 91-76.

Duane Gibson led UE on the glass with eight rebounds as UE won that battle by a final of 35-22.  Evansville entered the night as the #3 team in the nation in 3-point shooting and added to that number on Tuesday, hitting 12 out of 15 (80%) tries.  It fell just short of the program record of 83.3% in a game, which was set against Butler (1990-91) and Southern Illinois (1995-96) when the team hit 10 out of 12 attempts from outside.

Shots were falling from all over the floor for the Aces as they shot 60.7% on the night, the second contest in a row where UE finished above 60%.

UE is back at the Ford Center for its next three contests.  Canisius visits Evansville on Saturday in a 1 p.m. game before the Aces welcome Austin Peay and Midway next weekend.