Ohio Valley Conference

EVANSVILLE, Ind. - Southeast Missouri Women's Basketball (0-3) fell on Thursday night to Evansville (2-1) by a final score of 70-55 from Meeks Family Fieldhouse. 
 
The backcourt duo of Lexi McCully and Zoe Best led the way for the Redhawks as each scored a team-high 16 points as the Redhawks shot just 32.4-percent from the field in the game (24-74). 
 
UE shot 34.1-percent behind 20 points from Camryn Runner as the Aces shot nearly 50-percent from three-point range (9-21) and 81.6-percent from the charity stripe. 
 
SEMO dominated the paint, scoring 40-of-their-55 points in the paint. UE edged SEMO in total rebounds, outrebounding the Redhawks by a 47-35 advantage. 
 
The Redhawks finished the opening quarter with a 15-14 advantage behind seven points from Kennedy Claybrooks who shot 60-percent from the field (3-5). 
 
UE jumped out to a 5-0 lead before Indiya Bowen got the Redhawks on the board. Bowen drove to the middle of the lane, jumped inside a defender, and finished the basket through the contact. The Redhawks trailed 5-2 at the 8:17 mark in the first. 
 
From one-of-10 first quarter turnovers from UE, Zoe Best made a layup to get the Redhawks to within a point just 15-seconds later.
 
A three-pointer from UE's Kylee Norkus regained a four-point advantage for the home team, but another turnover led to a jumper from Best on the other end with 7:11 left. 
 
A beautiful steal from Claybrooks led to a pass up ahead to Bowen who finished the layup to retie the game at eight with just over six minutes to play. 
 
At the end of the first quarter, SEMO led 15-14 after a layup on the final possession from Claybrooks. 
 
Kaiden Kreinhagen gave UE the lead to start the second corner with a three-point shot as the Purple Aces led 17-15 with 8:37 left until halftime. 
 
With nearly five minutes off the clock, Brianna Hill sunk a pair of free throws to tie it back up at 17. 
 
A 7-0 run from the Aces made it 24-17, capped off by another Kreinhagen three-pointer forcing SEMO into a timeout with 4:34 left in the half. 
 
Guard Lexi McCully snapped the scoring draught with a nice take to the basket as she stepped inside a UE defender and laid it in with 3:16 left. 
 
McCully finished the scoring for both teams in the opening half of play with another layup in the paint, to make the score 30-21 UE at the break. 
 
The Redhawks scored just six points in the second quarter, shooting just 9-for-30 from the field in the opening 20-minutes (30.0%). SEMO failed to record a three-pointer (0-10) and shot just 43-percent from the charity stripe (3-7). 
 
SEMO forced 20 first half turnovers and converted them into 14-of-their-21 points, but the Aces shot 35-percent from the field and 45-percent from three-point range to take a nine point lead into the locker room.
 
Ainaya Williams got the scoring started in the second half with a nice post move to trim the deficit to seven (30-23). 
 
But the Aces leaned on experience and pushed their lead back up to 13 after a pair of free throws from Camryn Runner to make it 38-25 with 8:37 left in the third. 
 
A three-pointer from Lexi McCully with 41 seconds left til the end of the third put the Redhawks down 10 going into the final quarter. 
 
With 7:47 left in the fourth quarter, Best completed a three-point-play to make it 53-45 Aces as the Redhawks got as close as eight points but UE never relinquished the lead and won 70-55

ILLINOIS 84, EASTERN ILLINOIS 37
CHAMPAIGNE, Ill. - The Eastern Illinois Women's Basketball team fell 84-37 against No. 23 Illinois on Thursday night at State Farm Center in Champaign, Ill. The Panthers drop to 12-6 all-time versus the Fighting Illini.

Illinois began the first half strong after a 12-2 run led by Kendall Bostic and Adalia Mckenzie allowed the Fighting Illini to jump out to an early first-quarter lead. Kiyley Flowers dominated the defensive end of the floor in the opening period, recording five steals in the first 10 minutes of action.

Tiny Lewis led the Panther's first-half offensive efforts, knocking down one of three attempts from behind the arc while heading into the break as the Panther's leading scorer with five points. Flowers finished the half with six steals, as the contest entered the break 41-15 in favor of Illinois.

The Fighting Illini remained in control throughout the second half, opening the third quarter on a 20-8 run to further extend their lead. Jasmine Brown-Haggar led the Illinois offense, finishing the night with 23 points on 10 of 15 shooting. U of I shot 55.4 percent from the field and 47.4 percent from three-point range.

Flowers finished the evening with a season-high seven steals, just four shy of an Eastern Illinois school record. Jayda Johnston finished the night as the Panther's leading scorer logging eight points in 16 minutes of play.

AUBURN 82, LITTLE ROCK 48
AUBURN, Ala. - Little Rock scrapped its way through the first half of Thursday's non-conference game, trailing by just six points at intermission against a tough Auburn team. But when the Tigers caught fire in the second half, the Trojans couldn't keep up and eventually fell 82-48 at Neville Arena. Little Rock (1-2) was outscored 25-10 in the third period and 51-23 in the second half after heading into the locker rooms trailing just 31-25 at the break. Auburn improved to 3-0 and earned the 1,000th win in program history.
 
Faith Lee led the Trojans with 10 points, Alaina Payne came off the bench to score nine points and grab three rebounds, Sug Williams added eight points and three boards, Jayla Brooks tossed in seven points and swiped five steals, and freshman Brenna Burk went 8-for-8 from the line to finish with eight points. Little Rock shot just 6-for-23 in the second half and finished at 34.8 percent for the night.
 
Arkansas transfer Talia Scott – making her Auburn debut – led all scorers with 26 points and tied the school record for three-pointers in a single game with eight. She also grabbed nine rebounds. DeYona Gaston finished with a 21-point, 14-rebound double-double. The Tigers forced Little Rock into 24 turnovers, which Auburn converted to 26 points.
 
Little Rock's only lead of the game came in the first minute when Brooks hit a triple to put the Trojans ahead 3-2, but Auburn responded with an 11-0 run to go in front 13-3. The Trojans put together seven unanswered points out of the media timeout to pull within two and Auburn ended the first period with a bucket for a 17-13 advantage.
 
Brooks converted a steal into a layup just 90 seconds into the second frame, tying the score at 17-17, but then Little Rock went scoreless for almost five minutes while Auburn went ahead by six. After Williams made a layup to end the drought, the Trojans went two more minutes without scoring before she ended the half with a pair of free throws. Auburn led 31-25 at the half.
 
The third period is where things unraveled, as Auburn opened the second half with a 16-0 run to stretch its lead to 47-25 midway through the period and headed into the fourth with a 56-35 advantage. Auburn's lead reached 68-38 with 5:58 remaining and Little Rock would play the last 5:24 without scoring a field goal.

TENNESSEE TECH 84, JACKSON STATE 56
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. - Tennessee Tech's strong start continued Thursday night as the Golden Eagles claimed a big 84-56 victory over Jackson State in the Hooper Eblen Center to improve to 4-0 for the first time since 2010-11.

The Golden Eagles will have a chance Tuesday night to make it 5-0 Tuesday night as Tech heads to Murfreesboro to take on Middle Tennessee for a 6:30 p.m. start.
Scoring was at a premium early on in the opening quarter, but once the Golden Eagles started to connect, Tech was able to pull away. The Golden Eagles were 7-for-17 from the floor in the first ten minutes and 11-for-12 from the line. With that performance, Tech outscored the Tigers 26-12 in the opening stanza. JSU (1-2) was 4-for-22 from the field in the quarter.

The Golden Eagles' shooting continued to heat up in the second and the third quarters. Before the half, Tech shot 7-for-13 from the field, including three 3-pointers and another 7-for-8 at the charity stripe. In the first half alone, the Golden Eagles were 18-for-20 at the line to help build a 50-29 advantage into the intermission.

The third quarter saw Tech shoot 10-for-16 from the floor.

Graduate guard Peyton Carter led all scorers as she poured in a career-high 21 points, while also tying her career marks in 3-pointers made with five and assists with seven as well as going 6-for-6 at the line. Transfer Taris Thornton had a strong showing as well, collecting 15 points on 6-for-10 shooting with eight rebounds. Graduate forward Anna Walker narrowly missed a double-double as she scored 12 points on 4-for-5 shooting from the field and 3-for-4 at the stripe with nine rebounds.

Tech dominated the glass, outrebounding the Tigers 51 to 31, which included 15 offensive rebounds that led to 18 second-chance points. The Golden Eagles also had 22 assists on 29 made shots.

Jackson State's physical style of play led to a combined 42 fouls – 24 against the Tigers and 18 against Tech. That led to an 18-for-22 effort for the Golden Eagles at the line and 13-for-19 for JSU.

For the game, Tech ended shooting 29-for-26 – a 46.8-percent performance – including 8-for-20 from long-range. JSU was 20-for-66 (30.3 percent) from the field and 3-for-15 from 3-point range.

Taleah Dilworth led the Tigers with 18 points, while Tierney Kelsey scored 13 points. Zoe Cooper led the team on the glass with seven rebounds, while Diaka Berete had a team-best four assists.