Game Notes (PDF)
Free Live Game Audio (Courtesy of the Aces' Radio Network)
No basketball team at the University of Evansville has ever opened Missouri Valley Conference play at 10-2. Tricia Cullop’s red-hot Purple Aces squad will attempt to become the first team to do so on Thursday night, as UE will travel to Des Moines, Iowa to battle the Drake University Bulldogs in a key Missouri Valley Conference contest. Tip-off for Thursday’s showdown is set for 7:05 p.m. and the game can be heard live in the Tri-State area on the Aces’ Radio Network (91.5 F.M.-WUEV, 100.5 F.M.-WSJD, 103.9 F.M.-WNTC).
Evansville will ride a nine-game winning streak into Thursday’s game, while also bringing 15-7 overall and 9-2 MVC records into the contest. Not only will the Purple Aces attempt to become the first UE squad, either male or female, to open MVC play at 10-2 on Thursday, but Evansville will also attempt to equal its longest winning streak in the 39-year history of the women’s program at 10 games. Only the 1982-83 and 1999-2000 squads have been able to string together 10-game winning streaks at UE.
Evansville won its ninth game in a row on Sunday afternoon, connecting on a season-high 13 three-point field goals en route to an 82-74 victory over Missouri State. Senior guard Courtney Felke led UE’s charge with 20 points on the strength of five three-point field goals, as all five UE starters reached double-figures. It capped a weekend in which the Purple Aces averaged 88.0 points per game in a pair of victories, while shooting 48.9 percent from three-point range (23-for-47).
Offense will likely not come as easily on Thursday night, as the Purple Aces will be facing the MVC’s top scoring defense in the Drake University Bulldogs. Drake has given up just 60.1 points per game so far this year while building a 14-7 overall record and 7-3 conference mark. The Bulldogs currently sit just 1.5 games back of both Evansville and Illinois State for first place in the MVC standings with just four weeks left in the regular-season.
Thursday’s match-up will pit two of the league’s top post players against one another in UE’s Shannon Novosel and Drake’s Jill Martin. Novosel is the current MVC Player of the Week and has stepped up to average a team-best 15.8 points per game over the last five contests while shooting 55.3 percent from the floor. Martin, meanwhile, leads the MVC in scoring at 16.8 points per game, and has averaged 17.0 points per game throughout her career against Evansville.
Senior guard Rebekah Parker continues to pace Evansville’s attack offensively with an average of 14.5 points per game. She will enter Thursday’s contest needing just 12 points to move into fifth place on Evansville’s career scoring chart, as she has recorded 1,323 career points at UE over the last four years.
Drake leads the all-time series over Evansville, 20-9, however the Purple Aces have won three of the last four meetings in the series, and six of the last eight meetings overall. Evansville was able to collect a 62-57 victory over Drake at Roberts Stadium on January 20, as Novosel led a pack of four Purple Aces in double-figures with 16 points.
