EVANSVILLE – The Matt Ruffing era of University of Evansville women's basketball will start with two of the toughest tests in the Missouri Valley Conference as the Purple Aces are set to close out the regular season against Drake and Northern Iowa on Thursday and Saturday.
Evansville vs. Drake -- Thursday, 7 p.m.: Live Stats |
Live Audio (WUEV 91.5) |
The Valley on ESPN3 |
Game NotesEvansville vs. Northern Iowa -- Saturday, 1 p.m.: Live Stats |
The Valley on ESPN3
Ruffing, who was named interim head coach this past Monday after the resignation of Oties Epps, will be hoping to see UE replicate some of the effort the team showed last weekend at Indiana State and Illinois State. The Aces (2-25, 1-15 MVC) took a lead into the half in each contest, and actually led for nearly 35 minutes in the Redbirds loss.
A big factor in Sunday's contest at Illinois State was the play of junior guard Sara Dickey. The Montezuma, Ind., native proved a difficult match-up for much of the game, finishing with 28 points. She currently ranks fourth in the Valley with a better than 16 points-per-game average, and she sits in third on the all-time scoring list for UE 1,584 points.
However, the story for the Aces this season has relied mostly upon where she gets her scoring help. The freshman duo of Kerri Gasper and Camille Coleman each have an outing with 20+ points under their belt this season, but they have yet to develop the consistency, averaging 5.5 and 7.5 points, respectively.
Meanwhile, Drake features one of the top scorers in Missouri Valley history in Lizzy Wendell, who enters Thursday averaging over 20 points per game. She's helped lead the Bulldogs to a 19-8 record, including a 12-4 mark in league play, while the team averages a conference-best 80.3 points per contest.
UNI, on the other hand, leads the MVC with a 13-3 conference mark and an 18-9 overall record. The Panthers will begin the week with a trip to Southern Illinois before closing out the regular season at the Ford Center. The team is riding a six-game winning streak and will be looking to clinch its first regular season championship since 2011.
NOTES: UE is 14-34 all-time against Drake and 19-28 vs. Northern Iowa … In home contests, the Aces are 7-14 and 11-10, respectively … Shyla McKibbon-Puelston is the next target on the all-time scoring list for Sara Dickey. McKibbon-Puelston entered the UE Athletics Hall of Fame last month, and she finished her Aces career in 2002 with 1,626 career points … With 583 career rebounds, Sasha Robinson now ranks ninth all-time in the UE history books … She is 22 away from moving up to eighth.
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