EVANSVILLE - In a hard-fought battle, the University of Evansville women's basketball team fell in heartbreaking fashion, 61-59, to Murray State on Tuesday evening in Meeks Family Fieldhouse.

Redshirt junior Jada Poland led Evansville in the scoring column for the third-straight game, scoring 16 points in just 25 minutes. Freshman Abby Feit finished with 14 points, recording her seventh-straight double-figure scoring performance. Also finishing in double-digits for Evansville was sophomore A'Niah Griffin with 10 points. On the defensive end, sophomore Makayla Wallace set a new career-high wit seven steals. Leading the Racers was Macey Turley with 19 points to go along with six rebounds, six assists, and six steals.

It was Murray State who commanded the contest in the first quarter as the Racers raced out to a 22-8 lead with two minutes left in the first period. The final two minutes of the first quarter and the beginning of the second quarter were a crucial stretch for Evansville and their competitiveness in the contest as the Aces went on a 17-5 run to cut within two at 27-25 with 5:37 left until halftime. The final five minutes of the opening half featured little offense as Murray State took a four-point advantage at 32-28 to the break.
 

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Box Score (PDF)

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Murray State's lead grew back to seven coming out of the half, but it would not stay that way for long. As was true for much of the evening, Evansville countered every punch that the Racers threw, trailing by just three with 10 minutes left in regulation. The lead would again grow for the Racers in the fourth quarter as Murray State held a 52-46 advantage with 8:46 remaining to play. Three quick points by Poland trimmed Evansville's deficit to three and an ensuing layup by sophomore Anna Newman brought UE within one with nearly eight minutes left. Down one with under five minutes remaining, Poland was fouled and went to the line, promptly knocking-down a pair of free throws to give the Aces their first lead of the night at 55-54.

The two sides traded the lead over the final four minutes until Evansville grew its lead to two on a jumper by Poland with 43 seconds remaining. Murray State would tie the game just 12 seconds later, giving Evansville a chance to go ahead with little time remaining. The Aces held the ball for a shot late in the shot clock and in the midst of running their set, the ball was jarred loose. Murray State recovered the ball and pushed it in transition as Turley scored a layup, two-on-one, with 0.9 seconds remaining. The Aces inbounded the ball, but could not find the net from three-quarters court in a 61-59 loss.

Evansville entered the game shooting 71% from the free-throw line and hit just 16-of-28 attempts from the stripe, while Murray State, a team that was shooting 65% from the free-throw line, hit 17-of-18 opportunities on the night.

The Aces finish up the semester academically before going on the road for a two-game road swing at Purdue Fort Wayne on Dec. 13 and Illinois on Dec. 15.
 

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