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SPRINGFIELD, Mo.—On a rainy, cold night in Springfield, Missouri, the Missouri State University Lady Bears rained on Evansville’s parade with 9-of-18 shooting from three-point range to shoot to a 76-65 victory over the visiting Purple Aces at the Hammons Student Center.
The Lady Bears used a string of three-pointers from sophomore guard Melissa Busby and junior forward Maggie Dwyer with under seven minutes to go to turn a four-point contest into a 60-49 Missouri State lead with 4:57 to play. From there, Evansville could get no closer than four points the rest of the way, as the Lady Bears went 11-for-14 from the free throw line in the final five minutes to clinch the victory.
“My hat is off to Missouri State,” said UE head coach Tricia Cullop. “You could tell that Missouri State really wanted this win and they played extremely hard and were extremely physical and I thought that we didn’t match that level of play.
“I am really frustrated with how we played tonight. There were a lot of things that we usually do well that we did not do well tonight, like taking care of the basketball and shooting free throws. We have to fix those things quickly though, because we have another tough game at Wichita State on Saturday.”
Evansville committed 18 turnovers which led to 19 Missouri State points on the night. The Purple Aces also went an uncharacteristic 7-for-12 from the free throw line (58.3 percent), while the Lady Bears finished at 21-for-27 from the stripe (77.8 percent). Evansville had entered the game ranked among the nation’s leaders in free throw percentage at 74.8 percent.
UE senior guard Rebekah Parker led all scorers with 18 points on 8-of-17 shooting from the field. Junior guard Ashley Austin chipped in 15 points all in the second half, while senior guard Courtney Felke added 14 points and eight rebounds for UE. Dwyer paced Missouri State with 17 points, while senior guard Tahnee Balerio added 16 points and Busby chipped in 13 on 4-of-7 shooting from three-point range.
For the game, Missouri State shot 46.0 percent from the field (23-for-50), including the 9-for-18 mark from long range. UE could muster just 36.8 percent shooting (25-for-68) on 8-of-29 shooting from three-point territory (27.6 percent).
With the victory, Missouri State improves to 3-11 overall and 1-2 in the MVC. Evansville, meanwhile, slips to 6-7 and 1-2 in the Valley. The Purple Aces will try to rebound on Saturday afternoon when UE travels to Wichita, Kansas to battle the Wichita State University Shockers (6-9 overall, 0-3 MVC). Tip-off is set for 1:00 pm and Saturday’s game can be heard live in the Tri-State area on 91.5 F.M.-WUEV.
