EVANSVILLE, Ind. – Following its run to capture the 2023-24 Ohio Valley Conference regular season championship, University of Southern Indiana Women's Basketball tips off its first-ever OVC Championship Tournament appearance Friday in the semifinal round at 1 p.m. against the No. 4-seeded Eastern Illinois University Panthers from Ford Center in downtown Evansville.
 
All games from the OVC Women's Basketball Championship Tournament can be seen live with a subscription to ESPN+. 95.7 FM The Spin and 97.7 FM WREF will have radio coverage of USI contests.
 
The Screaming Eagles finished the regular season with a 22-6 overall record and a 17-1 mark in OVC play to earn the No. 1 seed in this year's Ohio Valley Conference Championship Tournament. Southern Indiana earned the OVC regular season title in only the second Division I season for the program. USI improved its overall win total by 10 games and its OVC record by 11 games from its inaugural D-I season in 2022-23.
 
USI is also only the fifth team in OVC Women's Basketball history to win at least 17 conference games, which was the most conference wins for USI since 2000-01 in the Great Lakes Valley Conference when the Screaming Eagles went 17-3 in the GLVC. Southern Indiana also went 17-1 in conference action in 1997-98 after the 1996-97 national finalist team went 20-0 in the GLVC.
 
Southern Indiana enters the OVC Tournament on an eight-game winning streak, the second-longest this season. USI had a 10-game winning streak earlier this season that was snapped on February 3 in a road loss at Tennessee State University.
 
Last Saturday, the Screaming Eagles punctuated the regular season with a 70-59 victory over Southeast Missouri State University on Senior Night. USI shot for nearly 49 percent overall and 47 percent from three-point range. Junior guard Vanessa Shafford (Linton, Indiana) led the Eagles with 26 points, matching a career high. Freshman forward Chloe Gannon (Manchester, Tennessee) tallied 16 points in the win.
 
Earlier this week, the OVC announced its postseason awards and all-conference selections. Shafford joined senior forward Meredith Raley (Haubstadt, Indiana) on the All-OVC First Team. Senior forward Madi Webb (Bedford, Indiana) was named Second Team All-OVC, and sophomore guard Ali Saunders (Depauw, Indiana) was selected to the OVC's All-Newcomer Team. Plus, USI Head Coach Rick Stein was named OVC Coach of the Year after guiding USI to its first-ever OVC regular season championship in his 25^th season at the helm. Stein was previously a three-time coach of the year at USI in the Great Lakes Valley Conference.
 
Shafford led USI in multiple statistical categories during the regular season, including scoring, rebounding, steals, and minutes. The junior was eighth in the OVC and first on the team with 14.5 points per game. Shafford also paced the team with 7.5 rebounds and 1.5 steals per contest.
 
Raley was second on the squad this season with 12 points and 5.7 rebounds per outing, ranking the senior top 15 in the OVC. Raley also shot the basketball at nearly 48 percent from the floor. Right behind Raley was Webb at 10.6 points and 5.1 boards per game, who ranked among the top of the conference with a 54.3 field goal percentage in league play.
 
Saunders averaged eight points per game, shooting nearly 46 percent overall and 43 percent from distance. The sophomore led USI in assists (96) and assists per game (3.4), placing at the top of the conference in assists and assist-to-turnover ratio (1.7).
 
Gannon also had a strong first season in a USI uniform alongside Webb and Saunders. The freshman posted 10.2 points and 4.5 caroms per outing. Gannon also shot efficiently at above 56 percent from the field.
 
Eastern Illinois went 14-17 in the regular season with an 11-7 OVC record. On Thursday, the Panthers defeated the No. 8 seed Tennessee State, 60-48, in a competitive contest. Eastern Illinois pulled away after a 9-0 run to start the fourth quarter and a 7-0 run to end it. EIU shot 41 percent for the game with 26 turnovers but held the Tigers to 27 percent shooting. Junior forward Macy McGlone scored a game-high 22 points.
 
Earlier this week, McGlone was named the OVC Player and Defensive Player of the Year. McGlone averaged a double-double this season to pace the Panthers, averaging 18.1 points and 12 rebounds per game. The forward also shot for over 50 percent from the floor and blocked 57 shots. The Panthers averaged 66.2 points on 41.3 percent shooting in the regular season.
 
Eastern Illinois leads the all-time series against Southern Indiana, 4-1. In the two teams' lone regular-season meeting this season at Screaming Eagles Arena, USI claimed a 70-60 victory after rallying from a halftime deficit. Southern Indiana was above 48 percent shooting from the floor and held Eastern Illinois to 31 percent. While McGlone led EIU in that game with a double-double of 20 points and 11 boards, the Screaming Eagles had two players register double-doubles. Raley dropped 22 points and pulled down 12 rebounds, and Shafford notched 13 points and grabbed 10 rebounds. Webb also had 15 points in that contest for the Screaming Eagles.
 
The winner of Friday's semifinal game between EIU and USI will compete against the winner of the other semifinal matchup between No. 3 University of Tennessee at Martin and No. 2 University of Arkansas at Little Rock in Saturday's championship game at 2 p.m. from Ford Center.
 
Tickets are $80 for all women's tournament session passes and can be purchased through the Ford Center Ticket Office. Individual session tickets are also on sale now through the Ford Center and Ticketmaster. USI students receive free tickets to all USI games at the OVC Tournament at Ford Center by showing their student ID.