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The University of Evansville women’s basketball team will wrap up non-conference play - and a stretch of three-straight games against NCAA Tournament teams from a year ago - on Tuesday night, as the Purple Aces will welcome in-state rival Ball State to Roberts Stadium for “Take A Kid To The Game” day at UE. Tip-off is set for 6:00 p.m.
(please note the different start time).
Evansville (2-8 overall) dropped its second consecutive game to teams which participated in last year’s NCAA Tournament on Saturday afternoon with a 73-42 loss at Purdue. Senior guard Amy Gallagher paced the Purple Aces for the fourth-straight game with a season-high 13 points, six rebounds, and four assists, but UE could not overcome a sluggish first half which featured 19 first-half turnovers and just 30.0 percent shooting in the loss. Gallagher currently leads Evansville in scoring at 9.1 points per game, and has averaged a team-best 11.3 points per game over the last four contests alone.
Ball State, meanwhile, evened its record at 5-5 on Saturday afternoon with a 71-62 victory at Duquesne. The Cardinals shot above 50 percent from the floor for the second-straight game to knock off a Duquesne team which currently stands at 8-4. Junior forward Emily Maggert paced three Cardinals in double-figures in the victory with a 25-point, 15-rebound double-double. Maggert currently averages a double-double on the season with averages of 17.2 points and 11.4 rebounds per game. Her 11.4 rebound-per-game average currently ranks seventh in NCAA Division I women’s college basketball.
Overall, Ball State ranks as one of the nation’s top shooting teams, shooting 44.4 percent from the floor to rank 38th overall. Senior sharpshooter Audrey McDonald and senior forward Danielle Gratton also average double-figures this year for the Cardinals at 12.0 and 10.8 points per game respectively.
“Ball State is playing extremely well right now,” said UE head coach Misty Murphy. “After a tough loss to Wisconsin-Green Bay, they have beaten two pretty good teams in Illinois State and Duquesne thanks to some very hot shooting. We are going to have to bring our ‘a-game’ defensively tomorrow to try and slow them down.
“This is an important game for us, as the last two games have left a bad taste in our mouths. We need to have a strong showing tomorrow, because it is the final tune-up before Missouri Valley Conference play. We need to start getting back to the fundamentals and doing the little things correctly to get ready for Valley play.”
While Tuesday’s game will pit a pair of in-state rivals against one another, it will also pit a pair of coaching friends against each other, as Murphy and Ball State’s Kelly Packard know each other well. In fact, Packard coached Murphy during her junior year at Colorado State in 1992-93, and the two coached together at Colorado State during the 1996-97 season.
The all-time series is tied 4-4 between UE and Ball State. Tomorrow's game can only be heard on-line due to a time conflict with the UE men's game at Austin Peay. Click on the link above to listen in.
