Box Score EVANSVILLE – After playing a mostly even first half on Friday night, the University of Evansville women's basketball team went cold from the field in the second half, falling 62-36 to Northern Iowa at the Ford Center.
"We just couldn't put it together in the second half," UE head coach Matt Ruffing said. "I'm very pleased with Sasha Robinson's effort tonight. I think she and Kerri Gasper made some strides for us. We just have to do a lot of the little things better, and we're finding that out in these losses. Hopefully, we can learn from this, and it will help us down the road."
With the loss, the Aces dropped to 8-13 on the year with a 3-7 mark in Missouri Valley Conference play. Northern Iowa, which trails Drake by a game for first place in the Valley, improved to 16-5 and 9-1, respectively.
After falling behind early, the Aces took their first lead of the game with a 10-3 spurt midway through the first before heading into the second stanza trailing the Panthers 13-12. Each team would score the same amount of points in the second quarter as UE went into the break behind 26-24.
However, in the second half, the Aces were held to 16% shooting as they were outscored 13-7 in the third and 23-5 in the fourth.
UE was led on the day by Camary Williams, who scored eight points and pulled down nine rebounds. Macie Lively added six, and Robinson led all rebounders with a season-best 14.
Robinson, a senior out of Nashville, Ind., also moved up to fourth on UE's all-time rebounding list in the contest. She now has 766 for her career, and she's 45 away from moving into the top three.
Meanwhile, UNI was led by Abby Gerrits' 18 points while Hannah Schonhardt recorded a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds.
For the game, the Aces were out-shot 29.4% to 24%, and the Panthers forced 21 turnovers.
UE will return to action on Sunday with a showdown against league-leading Drake at the Ford Center. Tipoff is set for 1 p.m.
NOTES: Sasha Robinson bettered the rebounding total of Jenny Schultz, who recorded 752 from 1980-84. She will now be chasing Jamie Gray (200-04), who finished with 811 … Sara Dickey, UE's all-time leading scorer with 1,953, is 43 points away from tying Drake's Jan Jensen (1987-91) for the eighth-best total in league history … UE is 19-30 all-time against Northern Iowa, which includes an 11-12 mark in Evansville … UE is 33-71 all-time against schools from the state of Iowa.
=== #AcesAces ===
