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DAYTON, Ohio—Wright State freshman guard Shey Peddy’s driving lay-up as time expired Friday night capped a torrid offensive performance by the host Raiders and powered Wright State to a 71-70 victory over the visiting University of Evansville Purple Aces at the Ervin J. Nutter Center in Dayton, Ohio.

 

The Raiders as a team shot 57.8 percent from the floor and an even 50.0 percent from three-point range on the night.  Peddy led a pack of four Raiders in double-figures with 16 points on 7-of-8 shooting from the floor.

 

Peddy’s driving lay-up came after one of 20 costly turnovers by Evansville.  The Purple Aces took a 70-69 lead with 24 seconds remaining on a pair of free throws by junior forward Shannon Novosel.  The Raiders had a shot to take the lead with just under 10 seconds remaining, but a three-point attempt by LaShawna Thomas came up strong and Evansville grabbed the rebound on a tie-up situation.  The Purple Aces would not maintain possession though, losing the inbounds pass, giving Peddy and the Raiders a chance to pick up the victory.

 

“This loss is a tough loss to swallow, and the bad thing is that this is the third game like this,” said UE head coach Tricia Cullop.  “We really need to dig down deep and come together as a team, because we are now going into Missouri Valley Conference play and we need to be at our best, especially on the road.

 

“Credit Wright State though, they played an outstanding game tonight.  Tonight’s game was by the far the most physical game we have played this year, including our Big Ten game against Michigan State.  We have to be able to overcome that though, because there are going to be a lot of physical games remaining on the schedule in MVC play, especially our next two games against Illinois State and Indiana State.”

 

Evansville led by as much as 10 points in the first half, as Novosel scored eight of her 12 points in the first 20 minutes to help power a balanced UE attack.  The Raiders would never go away though, using a 6-0 run to close the first half to trim the UE lead back to just one point, 35-34, at the intermission.

 

After the two teams exchanged leads three times to open the half, the Raiders used a 9-2 run to open up a seven-point lead, 54-47, with 10:42 to play.  UE would answer back behind three-pointers by junior guard Ashley Austin and senior guard Rebekah Parker, but the Purple Aces would hold no higher than a one-point lead the rest of the way.

 

Peddy and Thomas both scored 16 points to lead Wright State, while Whitney Lewis added 15 points and Sierra Crayton chipped in 12.  Parker paced UE with 15 points and six assists, while Novosel added 12 points and six rebounds.  Senior guard Courtney Felke added 10 points as well.

 

With the victory, Wright State improves to 3-8 overall.  Evansville, meanwhile, evens its record at 5-5.  The Purple Aces will now take 13 day off for the holiday season before opening up Missouri Valley Conference play on January 3 against Illinois State at Roberts Stadium.  Tip-off is set for 7:00 p.m. and the game can be heard live in the Tri-State area on 91.5 F.M.-WUEV.