Game Notes
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Live Stats
After nearly a month away from Roberts Stadium, the University of Evansville women’s basketball team will finally return home on Thursday night to open up Missouri Valley Conference play against the high-flying Illinois State Redbirds. Tip-off is set for 7:00 p.m. and Thursday’s contest can be heard live in the Tri-State area on 91.5 F.M.-WUEV.
Thursday’s MVC opener will mark the first home game for UE in 26 days, as the Purple Aces (5-5 overall) have not played at Roberts Stadium since defeating Ball State, 70-55, on December 8. Roberts Stadium has treated UE well this season, as the Purple Aces are a perfect 4-0 and have won by an average of 12.3 points per game in the four home victories. However, UE has not hosted a team the caliber of Illinois State yet this year, as the Redbirds are currently receiving Top 25 attention in both of the major college basketball polls while sporting a 10-1 overall record.
“It will be good to come back home and play in front of the home crowd once again,” said UE head coach Tricia Cullop. “Our fans have been great so far this year, and hopefully, they will really come out to support us this weekend because we have two very tough games coming up. We’ll probably face an average of 4,000 fans a game when we make this road swing in March, so it would be great to repay the favor this weekend.
“Illinois State is going to be one of the toughest teams we have faced so far this year. Offensively, they can hurt you in so many different ways because of their depth and the fact that they play so well as a team. The key to their hot start this year though has been their defense. If you look, only two teams have been able to score 70 points against them this season, and one of them (DePaul) is currently ranked in the Top 15. When you combine their offensive fire power with a defense that is giving up around 60 points per game, it is pretty easy to see why Illinois State is off to a 10-1 start.”
Thursday’s match-up will pit two of the MVC’s top backcourts against one another, as UE’s guard trio of Rebekah Parker (13.0 ppg), Courtney Felke (12.9 ppg) and Ashley Austin (10.1 ppg) will square off with Illinois State’s high-flying trio of Kristi Cirone (14.8 ppg), Tiffany Hudson (12.8 ppg) and Maggie Krick (12.4 ppg). The two trios rank as the top two starting backcourts in terms of scoring so far this year in the Missouri Valley Conference and feature two of the top guards in the MVC in UE’s Parker and Illinois State’s Cirone.
Parker garnered first team all-MVC honors a year ago as a junior, while taking home MVC Defensive Player of the Year honors. Cirone, meanwhile, earned the league’s Player of the Year Award last year as a sophomore, just narrowly edging out Parker for the award. Both players have caused fits for the opposition in this series throughout the years, as Parker averaged 18.0 points and 5.0 rebounds per game against the Redbirds last season, while Cirone has notched a 22.0 points per game average in four career games against UE.
“Rebekah Parker and Kristi Cirone are so fun to watch because they do all of the little things to help their teams win,” said Cullop. “Both players can score with the best of them if they have to, but both players are also so unselfish and do a great job of getting other players involved. The guard play in this game will be really fun to watch.”
Illinois State leads the all-time series over UE, 15-11. While both teams have enjoyed great home court success throughout the years, that has not been the case in this series, as the road team has won nine out of the last 11 meetings in the series. In fact, UE will be in search of its first victory at Roberts Stadium over Illinois State since a 70-57 victory during the course of the 2001-02 season.
