EVANSVILLE, Ind. - After picking-up a road win at Chicago State on Saturday, the University of Evansville women's basketball team hosts SIUE at Meeks Family Fieldhouse in the Purple Aces' regular season home-opener at 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday evening.

"I think the state of our program and how young that we are and the inexperience that we have on our roster right now that's playing, to get a win whether it's at home or on the road is a big boost," said Aces' women's basketball head coach Matt Ruffing. "To see a young group lose at Murray State, make the adjustments we needed to and focus on Chicago State and pull out a win and make the plays that we did down the stretch is really promising."

The win on the road at Chicago State snapped a 22-game losing streak for Evansville dating back to Dec. 4, 2017. Saturday's victory also represented the Aces' first road win since a 52-44 road win at Indiana State on March 4, 2017. In the win, UE opened the contest with a 19-12 advantage after the first quarter before Chicago State trimmed Evansville's lead to five at 32-27 at the half. Building a 12-point lead with three minutes left in the third quarter, Evansville saw the Cougars go on an 8-0 run to close the period and cut UE's lead to four. Chicago State continued its push, tying the match at 51 with 6:09 remaining in the game, but the Aces did not allow CSU to take a lead in the final quarter. With Evansville's lead back down to one with 2:06 left on the clock, UE mirrored Chicago State's 8-0 run with an 8-0 run of its own as it earned a 67-58 victory.
 

---

UE vs. SIUE (Wednesday, 6:00 p.m.): The Valley on ESPN (ESPN+) |  Live Stats | SIUE Website

---

Through two games, senior Kerri Gasper leads the Aces' in scoring and rebounding, averaging 11.5 points and eight rebounds per contest, powered by a 17-point, 12-rebound performance against Chicago State. Joining Gasper in averaging double-figures in scoring are redshirt senior Brooke Bishop and freshman Makayla Wallace, who are each averaging 10.5 points per game this season. Wallace's 16-point outing in her collegiate debut at Murray State was the most points scored by an Ace in their freshman debut since Shyla McKibbon recorded 16 points against Eastern Illinois on Nov. 15, 1997.

Wednesday evening's contest between the Aces and SIUE marks only the second meeting all-time between the two with Evansville winning the lone game in the series. In the first and only matchup in the series, UE earned an 80-77 overtime victory over the Cougars in a game held at Reitz Memorial High School. SIUE enters Wednesday's game with a 1-0 record after grabbing an 87-81 season-opening win over MVC foe Illinois State at home on Sunday evening. A season ago, the Cougars amassed a 17-15 overall mark and earned a bid to the Women's Basketball Invitational where they dropped an opening-round contest to Central Arkansas, 51-39.

"Coming into this past Sunday, when you look at their roster, they are very similar," said Ruffing. "A lot of younger kids. They're trying to gain experience and on Sunday they beat an Illinois State team that I'm super high on in our conference. Very impressive win and they did it in a comeback fashion. They've got some kids who play with high energy, rebound the basketball, play really hard, and they've got a couple of really good shooters. They play with a lot of pace, so we're going to have to do a really good job of getting back in transition and when that shot goes up, they crash really hard, so we're going to have to another good job on the boards."

• INFO: For all of the latest information on University of Evansville athletics, visit GoPurpleAces.com or follow the program on Twitter via @UEAthletics.

                                   

• 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.