TOURNAMENT CENTRAL
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EVANSVILLE NOTES  |  DRAKE NOTES
PRE-GAME PARY:  Friday at 1 p.m. in the Alpine II Room at the Sheraton Westport Lake Chalet (191 West Port Plaza in St. Louis)

EVANSVILLE, Ind. – The University of Evansville women's basketball team will open the 2014 Missouri Valley Conference Women's Basketball Tournament Friday afternoon at 2:37 p.m., when the No. 4 seed Purple Aces are slated to play No. 5 seed Drake at the Family Arena in St. Charles, Mo.
 
Evansville (15-14) enters the MVC Tournament with the league's longest streak at eight games, as the Aces closed the regular season with road wins at Bradley and Loyola last week.  Freshman Sara Dickey led four UE players in double figures in its win over the Braves with 19 points and junior Mallory Ladd finished with a double-double by tallying 15 points and 10 rebounds.  Ladd ended the regular season by turning in one of her best performances of the year against the Ramblers, as the All-MVC Honorable Mention selection scored 21 points, grabbed seven rebounds and notched a career-high seven assists.  Dickey posted her first career double-double with 13 points and 11 boards.
 
Offensively, Dickey leads Evansville and ranks second in the MVC in scoring at 18.0 points per game.  Earlier this season, the freshman guard became only the second freshman in Valley history and only the fourth player in program history to score 500 or more points in a season.  In addition, she ranks in the top 10 on the Aces' single-season list for field goals (181 – 5th) and free throws (108 – 7th).  Ladd ranks second on the squad in scoring (11.7 ppg) and field goal percentage (42.9 percent), and also ranks second in the league in rebounding (9.3 rpg).  Fellow junior Kat Taylor is averaging 11.5 points per contest and leads the team with a 36.5 percent mark from three-point range.  Freshman Dakota Weatherford leads UE in both assists (104) and steals (63), and is adding 6.5 points per outing.
 
Evansville is averaging 67.0 points per game and is shooting 38.2 percent from the field, 29.3 percent from beyond the arc and 72.2 percent from the free throw line.  The Aces also average 14.2 assists per contest and are forcing 16.0 turnovers per outing defensively, which includes 7.6 steals per game.  During its eight-game winning streak, UE is outscoring its opponents by an average of 14.1 points per game, while limiting foes to just 54.5 points per game and a 33.3 percent shooting percentage.
 
Drake (15-14) closed its regular season by winning four of its last six games, including a split with MVC regular-season co-champion Indiana State and Illinois State last weekend in Des Moines, Iowa.  The Bulldogs suffered a 73-71 setback against the Sycamores, before rebounding to defeat the Redbirds, 67-66, on a late layup by Caitlin Ingle.  Lizzy Wendell scored a game-high 28 points in the loss to Indiana State and Kyndal Clark added 20, as both players drained four shots from long distance.  In the victory over Illinois State, Clark connected on four more triples to break the Valley's single-season record for three-pointers on her way to a game-high 26 points.  Wendell added 17 in the win and Ingle dropped in 15. 
 
Clark enters the MVC Tournament as the league's leading scorer at 19.6 points per game and leads the MVC with 108 made three-pointers.  Clark also leads DU with 57 steals and a 43.4 percentage from long range.  Wendell ranks second on the team in scoring (16.1 ppg) and is the team's leading rebounder at 5.6 boards per game.  Wendell ranks second on the team with a 46.1 percent field goal percentage and has blocked a team-high 15 shots.  Ingle is adding 8.9 points per game and is shooting a team-best 47.7 percent from the field with 82 assists.
 
Drake is averaging 72.0 points per game and has been the league's top three-point shooting team, as the Bulldogs are averaging 9.1 three-pointers per game and shooting them at a 35.3 percent clip.  From the free throw line, DU owns a 67.7 percentage.  Drake is averaging just 35.3 rebounds per contest for a -3.8 rebounding margin.

This year marks Evansville's 14 MVC Tournament appearance and the Aces own a 13-11 record in MVC Tournament contests.  UE is 0-5 all-time against Drake in the MVC Tournament and will be looking for its first MVC Tournament victory since 2009, when Evansville won four games in four days to claim the tournament title.
 
The winner of the Evansville/Drake contest will advance to Saturday's semifinal round, where they will play at 1:35 p.m.