• Game Notes (PDF)
• Free Live Game Audio (Courtesy of WUEV)
The University of Evansville women’s basketball team will hit the road for the first time in Missouri Valley Conference play this weekend, as the Purple Aces will travel west for the annual Northern Iowa-Bradley road swing. The road trip begins Friday night in Cedar Falls, Iowa, as the Purple Aces will battle the UNI Panthers at 7:05 p.m. in a game that can be heard live on 91.5 F.M.-WUEV.
Evansville will bring an 8-4 overall record and 1-0 MVC mark into this weekend’s road trip. The Purple Aces have won four out of the last five contests after knocking off Southern Illinois, 70-65, to open Valley play last Friday. Junior guard
Amy Gallagher continued her strong play of late by leading three Purple Aces in double-figures with a career-high 19 points, as UE was able to rally from a seven-point halftime deficit. Gallagher has led UE in scoring in each of the last four games, while averaging 17.8 points per game over the last four contests.
Seniors
Ashley Austin and
Shannon Novosel joined Gallagher in double-figures against SIU with 18 and 16 points respectively. Both players also surpassed career milestones in the contest, as Austin broke into UE’s career Top 10 for steals, with her 136th career theft, and Novosel surpassed the 800-point barrier in her Purple Aces’ career. Austin enters Friday’s game tied for 10th on UE’s career steals chart with former backcourt mate Courtney Felke, who happens to be a graduate assistant coach at UNI this season. Novosel, meanwhile, stands on the verge of another career milestone, as she is three blocked shots shy of 100 in her UE career. Should she record three blocks, she will become just the 20th player in MVC history to surpass the 100-block mark.
Northern Iowa will bring a 3-9 overall record and 1-1 Valley mark into Friday’s contest. The Panthers split a pair of games at Missouri State (W, 65-62) and Wichita State (L, 64-53) last weekend to open conference play. Junior sharpshooter Nicole Clausen paces the UNI attack this year with an average of 12.0 points per game on the strength of 42.7 percent shooting from three-point range. She led the Panthers in both games last weekend, with an average of 16.0 points per game. Freshman guard K.K. Armstrong also averages double-figures so far for UNI, tossing in 10.7 points and 3.5 assists per contest.
Evansville leads the all-time series over UNI, 18-14, including sweeping all three series meetings last year. The Purple Aces and Panthers know each other well, having met in the quarterfinals of the State Farm MVC Tournament in three of the last four seasons. Evansville has won each of its last two trips to Cedar Falls, although both games were decided in the final minute of play. In fact, eight of the last 10 series meetings played in Cedar Falls have been decided by six points or less.
