EVANSVILLE, Ind. – University of Southern Indiana Women's Basketball concludes its season-long four-game road stretch and the regular season on Saturday when the Screaming Eagles travel to the University of Arkansas at Little Rock for a 1 p.m. contest.
Saturday's game can be seen with an ESPN+ subscription and heard on The Spin 95.7 FM.
USI Women's Basketball (19-9, 13-6 OVC) heads into Saturday's Ohio Valley Conference regular-season finale having already clinched a first-round bye in next week's OVC Tournament. USI needs to win on Saturday to secure the third seed in the tournament, while a loss would slot the Eagles into the fourth seed behind Morehead State University due to a tiebreaker against the top-seeded teams. With either result, USI will make its tournament debut at Ford Center in downtown Evansville next Thursday afternoon.
The Screaming Eagles are coming off a 73-62 road loss at Morehead State on Tuesday. USI led the contest through the first quarter and was tied at halftime with Morehead State, but the second-half advantage went to Morehead State. Senior guard
Ali Saunders paced the Screaming Eagles with 21 points for her 11
th 20-point outing of the season. Junior forward
Chloe Gannon tallied 19 points, scoring 10 or more for the 13
th straight game.
Overall, this season, Saunders continues to lead the team and ranks second in the OVC with 17.6 points per game, while averaging over 19 points per contest in OVC play. Gannon is second on the squad with 13.3 points per game.
Additionally, with a win on Saturday, USI will complete the four-game road stretch with a .500 mark of 2-2 and improve to 3-1 in regular-season finales since moving up to Division I in 2022-23. The Eagles won the regular-season finale each of the first two D-I years against Tennessee State University and Southeast Missouri State University, but fell at Tennessee State at the end of last season.
USI heads into Saturday's matchup at Little Rock (15-14, 11-8 OVC) with another opportunity to complete its sixth OVC regular-season series sweep of the season. The Screaming Eagles defeated Little Rock in the OVC opener back on December 18 at home, 57-40. Saunders led three Screaming Eagles in double figures in that game with 15 points.
The all-time series between Little Rock and USI is tied, 4-4. The Eagles have won two in a row in the series, including the win earlier this season and last year's victory in the OVC Tournament quarterfinals against the Trojans, 73-52. Saturday's meeting could be the last meeting between the two programs for the foreseeable future, with Little Rock set to depart the OVC after this season.
Little Rock heads into Saturday's regular-season finale against USI with wins in three of its last four games, including a 73-68 victory on Thursday at home against Morehead State. Ending the season with four straight home games, Little Rock is 2-1 through the first three games of the homestand.
Graduate combo guard Jordan Holman leads the team and is tied alongside Saunders for second in the OVC with 17.6 points per game. Holman is the only Trojan averaging double figures. Holman has scored 20-plus in five of the last six games. Little Rock averages just over 60 points while surrendering just above 62 points per contest.
Fans can get their tickets now for next week's OVC Tournament through usiscreamingeagles.com or the USI Ticket Office.
