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In the late 1980s, the University of Evansville and Saint Louis University were heated rivals on the hardwood as members of the old Midwestern Collegiate Conference. On Sunday, that rivalry will be renewed at 4:00 p.m. at Roberts Stadium, as the UE women’s basketball team will welcome the Billikens to town for UE’s annual “Teddy Bear Drop.”
Fans who bring a new or gently-used teddy bear to Sunday’s game will receive free admission. The bears will then be tagged, and at halftime, fans will have a chance to throw the bears onto the court for a chance to win a prize. All of the teddy bears will then be collected and the women’s basketball team will deliver the bears to the children at Riley Hospital for Children in Newburgh to help spread holiday cheer.
“I?am really proud that our program is able to partner with Riley Hospital for Children to help put on this event,” said UE?head coach
Misty Murphy. “The children at Riley are so deserving of our support, and anything that we can do to try and help them, especially during the holidays, we will definitely try to do. As a mother of two, a program like this is very near and dear to my heart.”
Sunday’s game will be UE’s first at home in three weeks, as the Purple Aces have not played at Roberts Stadium since a 69-66 loss to Samford on November 15. Evansville, 0-6 overall, is hoping that a return home to Roberts Stadium will help revitalize its offense, as the Purple Aces averaged just 58.0 points per game on a recent four-game road trip, after averaging 67.0 points per game at home. Freshman forward
Samantha Heck currently leads the UE offense with an average of 8.2 points per game, while also grabbing 5.7 rebounds per game.
Saint Louis, meanwhile, will enter Friday night’s game at Creighton with a 3-3 overall record after posting its second win in a row on Monday with a 79-70 victory over Arkansas State. Senior center Amanda Kemezys leads three Billikens in double-figures this year with averages of 16.7 points and 9.5 rebounds per game. She posted a 14-point, 19-rebound double-double in SLU’s victory over Arkansas State on Monday, and had a career-high 26 points two games ago against Montana. Junior forward Lauren Woods and senior guard Katie Paganelli also average double-figures this year at 14.2 and 12.0 points per game respectively.
“Saint Louis’ frontline is extremely talented, and Paganelli on the outside is a great shooter,” said Murphy. “We will have our hands full defensively on Sunday, especially trying to contain Kemezys on the interior. Our team defense is going to have to be much better on Sunday than it was at Butler on Wednesday night.”
Evansville leads the all-time series over Saint Louis, 15-5, however the Billikens have won each of the last three meetings. Sunday’s game will mark the first series meetings between the two schools since December, 1998, when Saint Louis handed UE an 80-63 loss right before the holidays.
Sunday’s game can be heard live on 91.5 F.M.-WUEV and live video streaming of the game can be seen on-line at GoPurpleAces.com through AcesTV.
