Two Missouri Valley Conference womens basketball teams trying to turn things around in time for post-season play will meet at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Redbird Arena. The late-February Tuesday game is unusual for Valley womens basketball, but what Illinois State and Evansville are facing is typical of the challenges of late-season league play.
Illinois State, 4-19 overall, 2-12 in the Valley, is trying to shake a six-game losing streak. Evansville is on its own four-game skid.
The Redbirds last win was a 61-60 thriller against the Aces in Evansville.
Nadia Peruch s 17 points and nine rebounds led the way, and
Shandeen Hunts three-pointer with 1:57 left provided the winning margin. ISU won despite committing 20 first-half turnovers and had to overcome a pair of double-digit Evansville leads to come back. But the Redbird defense had one of its best efforts of the year, allowing the Aces to shoot just 32 percent from the field, including 4 of 21 three-pointers.
For Evansville, 11-12 overall, 7-8 in the Valley, getting healthy and back on the winning track are both keys to having a chance at some success in the Valley Tournament. For Illinois State, getting there is the No. 1 challenge.
For Illinois State, the possible path to the eight-team State Farm-Missouri Valley Conference Tournament is fairly clear: to have the best chance to make the tourney, the Birds need to win three of their final four games, including Sunday vs. Southern Illinois and March 1 at Bradley.
Six teams already are in the tournament, including Drake, host Southwest Missouri State, Northern Iowa, Creighton, Evansville and Wichita State. Indiana State needs one more win to get the seventh spot. The Birds, Braves (4-10) and Salukis (2-13) all are battling for the final spot. Last year, SIU beat Illinois State in the season finale to win the No. 8 seed.
The Aces have been suffering from a shortage of healthy post players. New coach Tricia Cullop has been without all-America candidate Shyla McKibbon since the first game of the season. Recently, the Aces have played without top scorer and rebounder Lisa Eckart (ankle) and freshman post player Jamie Gray (wrist).
Without the post players, UEs three-point shooting has fallen on hard times--all the way to an 0-17 effort in Saturdays loss to Drake. That trey-less effort ended a streak of 83 straight Evansville games with at least one three-pointer.
