BOX SCORE

EVANSVILLE, Ind. – Senior Samantha Heck led the University of Evansville women’s basketball team with 20 points and pulled down seven rebounds to become just the fourth player in program history to record 1,200 career points and 700 rebounds, but the Purple Aces fell, 70-57, to visiting Northern Iowa Friday night at the Ford Center.
 
Heck was one of three Evansville (8-18, 6-9 MVC) players in double figures, as sophomore Kat Taylor finished the evening with a career-high 15 points and senior Meagan Collins added 10 off the bench.
 
Northern Iowa (13-14, 8-7 MVC) drained 12 three-pointers in the win to give head coach Tanya Warren her 100th career victory.  Jess McDowell knocked down seven triples for the Panthers, going 7-for-12 from behind the arc to lead all scorers with 21 points.  Jacqui Kalin added 20 for UNI, while Amber Kirschbaum scored 11 points and grabbed a career-high and Ford Center record 17 rebounds.
 
Northern Iowa quickly jumped out to a 6-0 lead, but UE scored the next five points when senior Chelsea Falkenstein connected on an early three-pointer and Heck sank a jumper to make the score 6-5 just under four minutes into the contest.
 
Evansville took its first and only lead of the game at 17-14 on a Heck triple midway through the first half, but it would not last for long, as Northern Iowa responded, getting  a pair of triples from Brittni Donaldson to retake the lead at 20-17 with 5:21 remaining in the opening stanza.
 
After a pair of free throws by Collins pulled the Aces back within one, UNI went on an 8-0 run that was capped by a Kirschbaum layup to push its advantage to 28-19 and force a UE timeout at the 2:59 mark.
 
Taylor closed the half by scoring the final seven points for Evansville, including a driving layup with three seconds remaining in the half to pull the Aces within six at 32-26 heading into the locker room.
 
Taylor finished the first half with 10 points, going 4-for-5 from the field, but the Panthers drained seven of their 16 first-half shots from long distance and Kirschbaum notched eight of her points and 11 of her rebounds in the first 20 minutes of the ballgame.
 
Early in the second half, UE cut UNI’s lead to 34-30 on a Heck jumper, before Northern Iowa went on a 10-4 run to take a double-digit lead, 44-34, with 11:32 left to play.
 
Collins hit a pair of free throws and banked in a layup to trim the margin to 52-47 with under eight minutes to play, but the Panthers were able to withstand the Aces late rally and outscore UE, 18-10, the rest of the way to claim a 70-57 victory.
 
Evansville shot 38.6 percent (22-for-57) from the field, but hit just five of its 20 three-point attempts, while UNI shot 23-for-60 from the floor (38.3%) and went 12-for-30 from beyond the three-point line (40.0%). 
 
Northern Iowa outrebounded the Aces, 37-35, but UE won the battle in the paint, 26-14, and scored 11 second-chance points to the Panthers’ four, despite UNI’s 11 offensive boards.
 
UE will play its final home game of the year Sunday, March 3, when it hosts Bradley for Senior Day at 1 p.m.