LIVE VIDEO  |  LIVE AUDIO  |  LIVE STATS
EVANSVILLE NOTES

EVANSVILLE, Ind. – The University of Evansville women's basketball team will begin a three-game road swing Saturday afternoon, when the Purple Aces travel to Carbondale, Ill., for a 2:05 p.m. contest with Southern Illinois at SIU Arena.
 
Evansville (7-10, 2-4 MVC) will be looking to get back on track, after it fell to Indiana State and Illinois State in a pair of games last weekend at the Ford Center.  The Sycamores defeated the Aces, 67-46, Thursday night, before the Redbirds downed UE, 78-54, Sunday afternoon.  Freshman Sara Dickey led Evansville with 13 points and fellow freshman tied a season-high with 14 rebounds against Indiana State, before senior Katie Ellerson scored a team-high 15 points against Illinois State.  The Aces struggled from the floor in both matchups, hitting just 27.9 percent of their shot attempts against the Sycamores, before they shot a paltry 25.0 percent from the floor against the Redbirds.
 
Individually, Dickey leads the Missouri Valley Conference in scoring (17.4 ppg) and ranks second on the team in three-point shooting percentage at 28.8 percent (32-for-111).  Junior Mallory Ladd, who has missed Evansville's last two games due to injury, is also averaging in double figures at 12.1 points per contest and is leading the conference in rebounding at 10.5 boards per outing.  Fellow junior Kat Taylor rounds out the Aces' list of double-digit scoring averages, as she is putting up 11.9 points per game and has dished out 60 assists, a mark that ranks second on the team.  Freshman Dakota Weatherford leads UE with 61 assists and has posted a 38:13 assist-to-turnover ratio in her last 10 games.
 
Evansville is averaging 68.4 points per game and shooting 35.6 percent from the floor, including a 27.0 percent clip from behind the three-point.  Collectively, the Aces are shooting 74.0 percent from the free throw line and are grabbing 42.4 rebounds per contest.  UE also owns a +0.4 turnover margin and is averaging 7.4 steals per game.
 
Southern Illinois (3-14, 1-5 MVC) enters Sunday's matinee on a five-game losing streak, after dropping games to Illinois State and Indiana State last weekend.  The Salukis dropped a 76-59 decision to the Redbirds, before suffering a 63-44 setback to the Sycamores.  Mercedes Griffin and Dyana Pierre each scored 14 points to lead SIU against Illinois and Pierre recorded a team-high eight rebounds.  In the loss to Indiana State, Griffin once again led Southern Illinois by scoring 15 points.
 
Pierre leads the team in scoring (13.8 ppg), rebounding (9.1 rpg) and blocks (31), and ranks fourth in the Valley in shooting percentage (51.1%).  Azia Washington is averaging 11.3 points per contest for the Salukis and is adding 7.1 boards per outing.  The only SIU player averaging in double figures is Cartaesha Macklin, who was scoring 10.1 points per game, before suffering a season-ending injury just seven games into the season. 
 
As a team, Southern Illinois ranks 10th in the MVC in scoring at 57.9 points per game and is shooting a league-worst 63.7 percent from the charity stripe.  The Salukis own a 38.4 percent field goal percentage, including a 23.1 percent clip from three-point land.  SIU is turning the ball over 18.8 times outing, while forcing only 13.2 miscues from its opponents for a -5.5 turnover margin. 
 
The all-time series between Evansville and Southern Illinois is tied, 24-24.  The Aces swept the regular-season series from the Salukis last year, but SIU defeated UE, 83-74, in overtime in the 2013 MVC Tournament in St. Charles, Ill., putting an end Evansville's 2012-13 campaign.