EVANSVILLE — After putting together one of the best quarters of the season to open the second half, the University of Evansville women's basketball team fell victim to similarly impressive stretch from visiting Wichita State, falling 74-67 to the Shockers at the Ford Center on Sunday afternoon.
The Aces (7-10, 2-4 Missouri Valley Conference) rode a 15-0 run in the third on the way to out-scoring the visitors 19-4 in the frame, but the Shockers (6-10, 1-4 MVC) answered emphatically by scoring 14 of the first 15 points of the final stanza. They would never trail again.
"We started gaining some momentum when we started to be aggressive," UE head coach Matt Ruffing said. "We kind of let them dictate the pace, but once we started to push and attack the paint, I thought our offense opened up. That third quarter proves that when we're doing what we're supposed to do, we're capable of performing at a high level. I think confidence is a big thing for us, and we showed that in the stretch we had earlier this year."
"I have to give Wichita a lot of credit," Ruffing added. "I think we may have gotten a little complacent at the start of the fourth quarter, and Wichita took advantage of it. They got some confidence and started to build momentum, and we couldn't swing it back in our favor."
The Aces were led on the day by Camary Williams. The Ft. Myers, Fla., native led all scorers with 24 points, and she did the bulk of her work from the charity stripe, going 14-21. The 14 made free throws tied Latasha Austin's 16-year-old school record. Williams also pulled down a game-best 10 rebounds.
Sara Dickey also enjoyed a productive day as well with 17 points on 7-for-15 shooting, and both Brooke Dossett and Macie Lively hit double figures, finishing with 12 and 10 points, respectively.
Meanwhile, the post tandem of Rangie Bessard and Angiee Tompkins led the Shockers, combining for 29 points and 15 rebounds.
UE will return to action next Sunday with a showdown against Southern Illinois.
NOTES: Sara Dickey, UE's all-time leading scorer, now has 1,905 career points, which is the 13th-best mark in MVC history … Sasha Robinson's career rebound total now stands at 731. She's 14 away from tying Samantha Heck (2009-13) for the fifth-best mark in UE history … UE is 21-26 all-time against Wichita State, which includes a 13-10 mark in Evansville … The Aces are now 21-27 against schools from the state of Kansas.
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