EVANSVILLE, Ind. – University of Southern Indiana Men’s Basketball returns to the road for its second three-game road trip of the season, beginning with a visit to Southern Illinois University Friday in Carbondale, Illinois. The tipoff time has been moved up to 6 p.m. Friday in the Banterra Center.
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Fans can track your Eagles all season by visiting the schedule on USIScreamingEagles.com for links to follow all of the action on the ESPN+, ESPN 97.7FM (http://listentotheref.com), and 95.7FM The Spin (http://957thespin.com/).
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USI, which is 3-9, got back on track with a 79-47 win over the University of Saint Francis (Illinois) Tuesday evening at Screaming Eagles Arena. USI junior forward Jack Mielke (Downers Grove, Illinois) led the Eagles to victory with a career-high 18 points.
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Through the first 12 games of the season, junior guard Jeremiah Hernandez (Chicago, Illinois) and sophomore guard/forward AJ Smith (Edwardsville, Illinois) lead USI in scoring with 12.8 points and 11.4 points per game, respectively. Smith also leads the team with 9.5 rebounds per contest.
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The Salukis of SIU are 7-4 this season after posting a 76-63 win over North Dakota State University at home Tuesday night. The win also broke a two-game skid by the Salukis, who are 3-3 in the last six games.
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USI won last year’s meeting at Screaming Eagles Arena, 71-53, for the Eagles’ first NCAA Division I win. SIU leads the all-time series with USI, 3-1, dating back to 1981.
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Following Friday’s contest, USI opens Ohio Valley Conference action at Southeast Missouri State University December 29 in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, and at Lindenwood University December 31 in St. Charles, Missouri. The next USI home games are not until the new year when the Eagles host Tennessee State University January 4 and Tennessee Tech University January 6 at Screaming Eagles Arena.
Eagles start three-game road swing Friday
Sinclair sets career-high in points at SEMO
CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. – The University of Evansville women’s basketball team’s offense couldn’t find its footing at the Show Me Center in a 74-44 loss to the Southeastern Missouri Redhawks.
Junior guard Lexie Sinclair had a career game on the road against SEMO with 11 points, three treys, and four field goals. Point guard Kynidi Mason Striverson continued her double-digit scoring streak at the Show Me Center with 12 points while forward Maggie Hartwig had 11 rebounds to lead the defense.
It was a slow start for the Aces on Thursday morning as two second-chance free throws for Mason Striverson were the team’s first points. UE wasn’t able to string a run of baskets together in the first 10 minutes but a five-point stretch midway through the quarter kept it close thanks to a three from Mason Striverson.  But a three-minute scoreless streak set Evansville back to a 10-point deficit after one.
The Aces had a faster start in the second quarter as center Barbora Tomancova made back-to-back layups in the first minute and a half. But a five-minute cold spell had UE on its heels down 19 with over two minutes in the half. A three from guard Madlena Gerke ended the scoreless streak while being Evansville’s final basket of the half. The Aces headed into the locker room down 38-18.
Sinclair was the highlight for UE in the third quarter, knocking down two threes and shooting 80% from the floor. The junior guard scored all 11 of her points in the quarter while adding an assist and a rebound. The third quarter was Evansville’s best of the game, shooting 50% from the floor and adding 16 points while holding the Redhawks scoreless for over three minutes.
The Aces added 10 points in the final frame with Mason Striverson adding five to her line. UE benefited from seven attempts at the line while Mason Striverson and Hartwig added two buckets on the floor. Despite almost doubling their shooting percentage from the first half to the second half, the Aces fell to SEMO 74-44.
Evansville will take nine days off from action before beginning Missouri Valley Conference play at home to end the year. UE welcomes in-state rivals Indiana State to Meeks Family Fieldhouse on Dec. 30 with tip-off set for 6 p.m.
Willis Transfers To USI For 2024
EVANSVILLE, Ind. – University of Southern Indiana Volleyball has signed freshman outside hitter Ashby Willis for the 2024 campaign. Willis becomes a Screaming Eagle after transferring from Purdue University Fort Wayne.
“We’re excited to welcome Ashby to our USI family,” says USI Volleyball Head Coach, Jeffrey Aucoin. “Ashby made an immediate impact with her previous program garnering All-Conference honors in her first year. She is a stand-out on the court, in the classroom, and connected with our team immediately. We look forward to having Ashby join us this spring.”
Ashby Willis | 6’0″ | Outside Hitter | Mt. Carmel, Illinois
Willis transfers to USI from Purdue-Fort Wayne after being named to the 2023 Horizon League All-Freshman Team. She played in 29 matches during her freshman year for a total of 102 sets and finished with 277 kills with 2.72 kills per set for the Mastodons. During her days as a Mt. Carmel High School Golden Ace, Willis garnered IVCA All-State Honorable Mention, AVCA All-Region, All-Little Illini Conference, and News Gazette All-State in her only season at MCHS. She led the Aces to a conference and regional championship in 2022 while holding a perfect 4.0 GPA. Willis played club volleyball most recently with Elite Tsunami in 2023.
The Eagles completed a successful season last week by making their first Ohio Valley Conference Championship berth and earning their first tournament victory while going 15-16 overall and 10-8 in conference play.
HOT JOBS
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Easily applyEPD DAILY ACTIVITY REPORT
FOOTNOTE: Â EPD DAILY ACTIVITY REPORT information was provided by the EPD and posted by the City-County-County Observer without opinion, bias, or editing.
UPDATE 12/21/2023: Danica Short has been located and is safe.Â
 UPDATE: Missing Juvenile / Attempt to LocateÂ
UPDATE 12/21/2023: Danica Short has been located and is safe.Â
On December 10, around 8:50pm, fifteen-year-old white female Danica Short left Hillcrest Youth Home. To this date, we are still requesting assistance from the public; if you have any information that could help locate Danica, you are asked to contact 9-1-1. Attached are photos of Danica, including photos of her leaving Hillcrest Youth Home. She is roughly 5’8†with shoulder length blonde har. She was last seen wearing a black shirt, dark colored jacket, black pants and Adidas style tennis shoes. (12/18/2023)Â
PRIMARY THOUGHTS
Primary thoughts
You know, I thought I was done with 2023.
I was planning to relax and be on autopilot for the next few weeks. What’s the phrase, “the best-laid plans of mice and men…”
Yes, everything was fine until Judge Patrick Dietrick ruled that Indiana’s rules for running in the primary violated the state and federal constitutions.
A quick recap: Republican U.S. Senate candidate John Rust was denied ballot access because he hadn’t voted in two previous primaries, as required by law. Nor could he get the sign-off from his Jackson County GOP chairwoman that he was a Republican in good standing. S0, Rust exercised his God-given right and filed a lawsuit.
And he won.
Marion County Judge Dietrick ruled that the law violated the U.S. and state constitutions.
Dietrick held the law violated the 1st, 14th, and 17th Amendments (yes, the one that changed how U.S. Senators were selected). But it also violated the state constitution by putting more qualifications to run for office than the constitution allowed.
Dietrick pointed out that if a qualification for office was that a person had to be a resident and 18 years old, there was no way they could run in a primary because they could not have voted in the last two. And there’s no legal standard for a county chairman to use when deciding whether to sign off on the candidate.
That decision sent shockwaves through Indiana’s political universe. The state appealed, and the Supreme Court decided to hear the case on Feb. 12 (Lincoln’s birthday, which I find somewhat ironic, but I’m digressing).
What’s interesting is that the state asked for a stay in the order while it was being appealed, which the court denied. That means we can expect a proverbial free-for-all this season, for now. Unless the court comes back and says the law is unconstitutional, which would technically have to be put out in four days after the oral arguments as the day to withdraw from the primary is Feb. 16.
All this could have been avoided.
First, it could have been avoided had county chairwoman Amanda Lowery just signed the damn letter and let Rust on the ballot. But she didn’t, so here we are.
Second, and more important, this would not be happening if Republicans and Democrats just followed the lead of Libertarians and paid for their own primaries.
I have argued this for years: Why should taxpayers foot the bill for political parties to nominate their candidates for a general election? Why should Democrats pay for Republicans to pick their candidates? Why should Republicans have to pay for how Democrats nominate theirs? And why should any of us have to pay for either party?
Political parties should have their own process for selecting candidates, which I am all for, and they should have to foot the bill.
If taxpayers are going to foot the bill, then Indiana should move to a more open primary system. Let everyone run on a combined ballot, and then let the top two candidates run in a general election. And for fun, if a candidate gets more than 60 percent of the vote, they automatically win. Problem solved. Issue addressed.
Hopefully, Indiana lawmakers will look at this next session, and the state will finally fix this broken system. Of course, it was Indiana lawmakers and politicians who broke it in the first place, so good luck with that one.
We now return to being done with 2023.
FOOTNOTES: Abdul-Hakim Shabazz is the editor and publisher of Indy Politics. He is also a licensed attorney in both Indiana and Illinois.