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Although the University of Evansville women’s basketball team fought its way back within one point, it could not fully recover from the 18-point first half deficit as visiting Bradley was able to post a 68-58 at Roberts Stadium in Evansville.
The Braves were able to pull ahead of the Aces early in the game, scoring the game’s first 11 points within the first four minutes. The lead continued to grow as the Braves led the Aces 30-12 with 9:19 left in the first half. From there the Aces responded with a 10-0 run over the Braves to get back within eight points, and sophomore guard Jordan Lewis would eventually cut Bradley’s lead down to five with a three pointer before the half, leaving the score at 40-35.
After Bradley scored the first five points of the second half to rebuild a double –digit lead, Evansville would respond with a 9-0 run to cut the deficit to just one point, 45-44 on a Samantha Heck layup with 14:33 to play. Evansville would again trim the deficit to just one point midway through the second half but that would be as close as Evansville would come as a late 9-1 Bradley run to end the game gave the Braves the 10-point victory.
“I was obviously very disappointed in the start we had tonight,” said UE head coach Misty Murphy. “You cannot spot a team 11 points, especially in this league and expect to come out with a victory.
“I was very proud of the way the team battled back. They showed a lot of fight and a lot of heart tonight we just need to be ready from the opening tip every night.”
Evansville was led by sophomore forward Chelsea Falkenstein and junior forward Stephanie Bamberger, who both recorded 13 points. Senior forward Jenny Van Kirk led for the Braves in double figures with 14 points. Sonya Harris produced 14 of Bradley’s 44 rebounds. For the game Bradley outrebounded Evansville 44-24 including grabbing 20 offensive rebounds.
“Rebounding was another aspect that I was not pleased with,” said Murphy. “We need to do a much better job of boxing out especially on the defensive end. If you give a good team like Bradley 20 offensive rebounds they are more than likely going to beat you and that is the case tonight.”
With the victory Bradley improves to 11-9 in overall and 7-3 in the MVC. Evansville meanwhile falls to 4-17 and 1-9 in the Valley with the loss. The Purple Aces will conclude their current four game homestand on Sunday afternoon at 2:00 pm by hosting the Panthers of University of Northern Iowa. Sunday’s game can be heard on 91.5 FM- WUEV.
