CEDAR FALLS, Iowa - Set for its longest road trip of the season, the University of Evansville women's basketball opens a trip to Iowa at 6:30 PM on Friday evening with a matchup with UNI in Cedar Falls, Iowa.
Last Game: Valparaiso 88, Evansville 66
- Despite three impressive offensive performances, the University of Evansville women's basketball team suffered an 88-66 loss to conference foe Valparaiso on Sunday afternoon inside Meeks Family Fieldhouse.
- Sophomore Makayla Wallace and junior Lola Bracy buoyed the Aces with 18 points each as Wallace set a new career-high in scoring.
- Freshman Abby Feit continued her impressive first collegiate season, scoring 14 points and dominating on the boards with a game-high 13 rebounds.
- For Valpo, Carie Weinman led all scorers with 19 points, while Shay Frederick added 18 points.
- In a reverse of Friday's game against Loyola, the Aces owned an 11-rebound advantage, but the Crusaders were able to find open shots and hit them.
- The high shooting percentage started early for Valpo, who jumped out to an 8-0 advantage and forced a UE timeout two-and-a-half minutes into the contest.
- The lead grew to 12 for Valpo, but Evansville answered the Crusaders' offense keeping Valpo's lead in check at 26-13 after the opening stanza.
- In the second quarter, the Crusaders slowly built their advantage as Valpo found its way to a lead as large as 20.
- Evansville looked to have trimmed Valpo's lead back to 16 at the half, but Ella Ellenson hit a three-pointer just before the buzzer to push its lead back to 19 at the break.
- Valpo's lead hovered around 20 for much of the third quarter as the two sides traded baskets.
- In the final two minutes, Evansville mounted a 5-0 run that cut the Crusaders' lead to 17 heading into the final period.
- Evansville got back within 16 points on three occasions in the fourth as it looked as if the Aces were poised to make a late run, but Valpo answered each time.
- The Crusaders continued to bounce back from each UE run and pushed its lead to its largest point of 26 late in the game before securing an 88-66 win.
Previewing the Matchup
- Evansville and UNI are meeting for the 56th time with the Panthers holding a 36-19 advan- tage in the all-time series.
- The Aces and Panthers last met on February 24, 2019 with UNI capturing a 95-46 win after hitting 15 three-pointers.
- UNI enters Friday's matchup with an 11-game winning-streak in the series, the longest active streak against Evansville by an MVC team.
- A win would give UNI the longest series win- ning streak over the Aces by any MVC team.
- Evansville's last win over the Panthers came on Feb. 8, 2014 in a 59-50 Aces' win in Evans- ville.
- The Aces are in search of their first win in Cedar Falls since Feb. 2, 2008 when Evansville earned a 57-52 win in the midst of a six-game winning streak over the Panthers.
- Since conference play began on Jan. 3, sophomore Makayla Wallace has stepped up her game. Sitting sixth on the team in scoring across all 15 games, Wallace has the third-best scoring average on the team in MVC action, averaging 9.5 points per game.
- Freshman Abby Feit has been no stranger to playing a high amount of minutes this season. Averaging 37 minutes per game, Feit has played a total of 555 minutes this season. No other Ace has played more than 400 minutes.
- Friday will mark Evansville's fourth game against an opponent inside the top 100 in RPI after facing Austin Peay (60), Illinois State (62), and Loyola (95) this season.
- UNI heads into Friday's matchup with a 9-5 overall record and a 1-2 mark in the MVC. The Panthers' conference mark is deceiving, having played Missouri State (RPI: 1), Drake (29), and Southern Illinois (78) in their three conference games so far.
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