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EVANSVILLE NOTES  |  DRAKE NOTES


EVANSVILLE, Ind. – The University of Evansville women's basketball team will continue its Missouri Valley Conference schedule by hosting Drake and Northern Iowa for a pair of games at the Ford Center this week.  The Purple Aces will match up with the Bulldogs Thursday night at 7 p.m., before welcoming the Panthers Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m. for the 12th annual Hoops for the Cure event.
 
Evansville (7-13, 2-7 MVC) enters Thursday's game having lost seven of its last eight games, including its last five.  The Aces fell in a pair of road contests last weekend, suffering an 87-70 setback at Missouri State, before falling to MVC-leading Wichita State, 66-48. 
 
Freshman Sara Dickey led UE with 22 points in the loss to the Lady Bears, before scoring a team-high 18 points against the Shockers.  The freshman guard finished 9-for-18 from the floor with four rebounds at MSU and went 7-for-18 from the field with nine boards at WSU.  Junior Kat Taylor and freshman Paris McLeod also finished in double figures against Missouri State, adding 12 and 11 points, respectively.
 
Dickey leads the team and Valley in scoring (18.3 ppg) and has scored in double figures in 19 of Evansville's 20 games this season.  Dickey's lone single-digit scoring effort came at Northern Iowa, when she was held to just five points.  Junior Mallory Ladd, who has missed the Aces' last five games, ranks second on the squad in scoring (12.1 ppg) and leads the league in rebounding at 10.5 boards per contest.  Taylor is averaging 11.5 points per outing and his shooting a team-best 32.1 percent from behind the three-point line.  Freshman Dakota Weatherford is pitching in 6.4 points per game and leads the team with 73 assists.
 
As a team, UE is averaging 66.9 points per contest, but has reached that average only once in its last five games.  In addition, Evansville is shooting 36.2 percent from the floor as a squad, including a 26.6 percent mark from long range.  However, UE has hit just 15 of its 82 three-point attempts in its last five outings.  Evansville is shooting 72.7 percent from the free throw line and is averaging 13.8 assists per contest.  Defensively, the Aces are forcing 15.6 turnovers per outing, including 7.2 steals per game.
 
Drake (9-11, 3-6 MVC) has won its last two games, as the Bulldogs defeated Bradley, 97-77, in a Jan. 26 contest in Des Moines, Iowa, before toppling in-state rival Northern Iowa, 66-64, last Sunday in Cedar Falls.  Carly Grenfell's three-pointer with 10 seconds remaining gave DU the victory over the Panthers, while Lizzy Wendell led all players with 23 points and 10 rebounds.  Kyndal Clark added 18 in the win and Caitlin Ingle dropped in 17.
 
Clark leads Drake in scoring at 16.9 points per game and has recorded a team-high 40 steals.  In addition, Clark is shooting 41.3 percent from behind the three-point line, hitting 62 of her 150 attempts from distance.  Wendell has bolstered the Bulldogs' offense with 13.7 points per contest and a team-best 6.0 rebounds per outing. 
 
DU is averaging 69.8 points per game, while giving up 74.1 per outing and is shooting 41.6 percent from the floor.  Drake leads the MVC in three-pointers made per game (8.4) and is shooting 33.1 percent from three-point land.  At the free throw line, the Bulldogs have connected on 68.0 percent of their attempts, but are getting outrebounded by a -4.7 margin.  DU is forcing 14.7 turnovers per game on the defensive side of the ball, including 8.2 steals per outing.
 
Northern Iowa (10-10, 6-3 MVC) has won six of its last eight games and will travel to Southern Illinois Thursday, before taking on Evansville Saturday afternoon.  The Panthers had a three-game winning streak snapped by Drake last Sunday, as UNI fell to its in-state rival, 66-64.  Four Northern Iowa players scored in double figures, including Brooke Brown and Jen Keitel, who each finished with 14 points apiece.  Keitel, Hannah Schonhardt and Stephanie Davison all finished with double-doubles for the Panthers in the defeat.
 
Keitel leads UNI in scoring (11.5 ppg), is shooting a team-best 52.9 percent from the field and is the team's second-leading rebounder (5.8 rpg).  Davison is adding 10.5 points and 4.2 boards per contest and Hannah Schonhardt is adding 8.8 points per outing, while grabbing a team-best 6.8 rebounds per game.  In addition, Schonhardt is shooting 41.7 percent from the floor and has recorded 25 steals.
 
Northern Iowa is averaging 64.2 points per game, while giving up 67.6 per outing and is shooting 37.5 percent from the field as a team, including a 27.6 percent clip from behind the arc.  The Panthers own a 72.4 percent free throw mark and suffer a -3.6 rebounding margin.  Defensively, UNI is forcing 13.5 turnovers, including 5.9 steals per game.
 
Evansville trails the all-time series, 31-13, to Drake and, 25-18, to Northern Iowa, despite splitting a pair of meetings with the Bulldogs and Panthers earlier this season.  The Aces topped DU, 71-67, in Des Moines, before falling to UNI, 64-56, in Cedar Falls.