Game Notes (pdf.)
EVANSVILLE, Ind.—The University of Southern Indiana women's basketball team opens the Deaconess Great Lakes Valley Conference Basketball Championship Tournament Sunday at 2 p.m. (CST) when it travels to Indianapolis to take on the University of Indianapolis in the opening round.
Sunday's meeting is the third time this season that the Screaming Eagles and the Greyhounds have met and will be rubber-match after each team claimed wins on their home courts during the regular season.
Sophomore forward/center
Anna Hackert led the Eagles with 24.0 points and 10.0 rebounds against the Greyhounds, while senior guard Kristin Turner and junior guard Katy McIntosh averaged 19.0 points and 18.0 points, respectively, to pace UIndy against the Eagles.
Hackert racked up 21 points, 10 rebounds, and four blocks in the Eagles' 70-69 win over the Greyhounds at the Physical Activities Center in January. She had 27 points and 10 rebounds in the Eagles' 70-66 loss to the Greyhounds in Indianapolis two weeks ago.
USI (17-9, 9-9 GLVC) ended the regular season on a down note as it lost its last three games and five of its last six, the most recent being Thursday night's 74-67 home loss to Kentucky Wesleyan College.
The Eagles, who are 10-7 all-time in the GLVC Tournament, are looking for their first post-season win since 2004. USI has lost its last five GLVC Tournament contests and its previous two NCAA II Tournament games during that stretch.
If USI is going to break that streak, it will have to do so with a roster that has just three players with post-season experience and just one—junior guard
Jessica Parker—who has scored in the post-season.
USI also is playing its first-ever GLVC Tournament game outside Evansville—USI hosted the first-ever GLVC Tournament in 1998 before it went to Roberts Stadium from 1999-07. The Eagles last post-season game was a home game against the Greyhounds in the first round of the GLVC Tournament in 2011.
For the season, Hackert leads the Eagles with 14.3 points and 9.4 rebounds per appearance, while junior guard
Stephanie Carpenter and sophomore forward/center
Mary O'Keefe are averaging 10.1 points and 9.9 points per game, respectively. Junior guard
Ariel Barnes is contributing 9.5 points and 3.4 assists per contest.
UIndy (18-8, 11-7 GLVC) snapped a two-game losing streak with its 95-54 win over Saint Joseph's College Thursday night. Junior guard Shelby Wall was one of four Greyhounds to reach double figures as she finished with a game-high 22 points.
For the season, McIntosh leads the Greyhounds with a league-best 16.7 points per game to go along with 5.6 rebounds and 4.2 assists per outing. Turner is pouring in 16.3 points and 4.6 assists per contest.
USI, which is ranked 10th in the NCAA II Midwest Region rankings, enters the GLVC Tournament as the 11th seed, while the Greyhounds, who are eighth in the Midwest Region rankings, are the sixth seed. The winner of Sunday's game advances to the quarterfinals, which are March 8 at the Ford Center in Evansville. The tournament field will be reseeded prior to the quarterfinals.
Sunday's game can be heard on WPSR 90.7 FM, while live stats, audio, and video can be accessed at gousieages.com.
