Box Score (PDF)

CLEVELAND, Ohio – A 19-point performance by Sara Dickey helped the University of Evansville women's basketball team earn a 72-63 victory over Cleveland State on Tuesday evening at the Wolstein Center.
 
"I am very proud of our girls, I thought that we learned from each game that we played to this point," UE head coach Oties Epps said.  "At Xavier we learned to improve our execution.  We did that at Miami, but learned that we have to do better in finishing the game.  Tonight we did that."
 
"We showed good fight tonight, our press was great for 40 min, everyone on the court contributed in some way," Epps continued.
 
Dickey drained a game-high five 3-pointers on her way to 19 points, leading everyone.  Ashley Hawkins finished with 16 points in her top effort at UE (1-2) while Laura Friday tallied 11 points with each tally coming from the free throw line.
 
"I definitely feel like it is coming together for us," Dickey said.  "Ashley had a great game tonight and was very aggressive.  We were making the right reads on offense and finished the layups when we needed."
 
Cleveland State (0-2) opened the game up on a 6-2 stretch before the Aces rallied back with five points in a row to take their first lead at 7-6 on a Dickey trey.  Evansville led by as many as five in the opening stanza before CSU got within four at 20-16.  Three minutes into the second quarter, the Vikings grabbed the lead back as Ashanti Abshaw hit a layup to give them a 21-20 lead. 
 
That advantage for CSU was short-lived as Jordan Campbell got in on the 3-point shooting, hitting one to put UE on top for good.  Her shot began what would be a 17-7 run to end the half.  The Aces went to the locker room up 37-28, marking their largest lead to that point.
 
Out of the half, Cleveland State notched the first field goal, but a 5-0 stretch saw the Aces extend their lead to double figures at 42-30.  The Vikings kept their deficit around the 10-point mark, but a Brooke Smith bucket with four minutes left saw them cut the gap to just five at 57-52.
 
The difference came on the ensuing possession for UE.  Following a miss, Kerri Gasper grabbed the rebounds and Dickey hit a three that proved to be the dagger.  In the final minute, Gasper hit two free throws to make it a 67-56 game before the Vikings closed to the final of 72-63. 
 
Evansville did a stellar job on the boards on Wednesday, tying Cleveland State with 38 rebounds.  On the defensive end, UE finished with a 28-21 edge.  Evansville also outshot CSU by a 42.0%-38.5% tally.
 
Next up for UE is a trip to San Luis Obispo, Calif. for next week's Cal Poly/ShareSLO Holiday Tournament where the Aces take on Montana State and Santa Clara.
 

• INFO: For all of the latest information on University of Evansville women's basketball, log on to the sport page on GoPurpleAces.com or follow the program on Twitter via @UEAthletics_WBB. 

 

• DONATE: For information on giving to UE Athletics or its individual athletics programs, visit the DONATE tab on the top of GoPurpleAces.com. 

 

• TICKETS: To purchase tickets for University of Evansville athletics events, log on to GoPurpleAces.com and click on the TICKETS tab on top of the page.