IUPUI at Evansville
Tuesday, Dec. 29, 2015
8:00 p.m. ET
AudioESPN 3The IUPUI women's basketball team travels to Evansville, Ind. Tuesday (Dec. 29) to take on the Purple Aces at 8 p.m. and try to finish non-conference play with their ninth win of the year. Head Coach
Austin Parkinson and company return to action after eight days away for the holidays. IUPUI's Scott Agness will have the call from inside The Ford Center in Evansville, Ind. The game will also be televised on ESPN 3 at 8 p.m. ET.
The Jags (8-4) won six straight in November and early December before alternating wins and losses in their last five games. IUPUI has lost two of their last three but both of those losses have come by 10 points or less to two ACC opponents in Louisville (70-61) and Georgia Tech (60-50). The Jags held leads in the second half of both games before the ACC foes pulled away down the stretch.
It's been a complete balance on offense for the Jags this season as three starters in
Akilah Sims,
Danielle Lawrence and
Mikale Rogers are averaging double figures. About half a dozen guards and wing shooters are contributing between 4.0 and 7.0 per game as well. Sims leads the way with 13.0 points per game and a second-best 6.7 rebounds. Rogers leads the squad with 6.8 rebounds per contest and a 10.5 average on points. Lawrence is the other double-figure scorer with 10.8 on the season. She notched her sixth double-figure game in IUPUI's loss last week to Georgia Tech.
Rogers had another big game on the glass last game as the junior post player pulled down 13 rebounds in the loss, but helped the Jags outrebound a much taller Georgia Tech team, 32-27.
As IUPUI looks ahead to Evansville, the Purple Aces are a tough study. They enter Tuesday's game with a 1-9 record, including seven straight losses, but the Aces played within ten points of Xavier and Miami (Ohio) before knocking off Cleveland State in their first three games. Since then, it's been a seven-game skid for Evansville by an average margin of 24.7 points. They've lost each game by 18 or more.
Evansville has just one player averaging double figures in junior guard Sara Dickey. Dickey leads the squad in points (15.6) and assists (2.1) while recording a team second-best 4.8 rebounds.
With a win, the Jags will move to 9-4 to end December and non-conference play before taking on Fort Wayne in a New Year's Day (Jan. 1) matchup to begin Summit League action.
