EVANSVILLE, Ind. — The final two games of the regular season will be played in Meeks Family Fieldhouse this week for the University of Evansville women’s basketball team.
The Purple Aces returned to Meeks Family Fieldhouse after two weeks away and picked up a big win against their in-state rivals last week. UE had its first win over Indiana State in two years with the 79-68 victory on Saturday night with an exciting crowd behind them. Evansville’s last win against the Sycamores came on Feb. 1, 2023 on the road when the Aces swept the season series having won their home game just two weeks prior.
Thursday’s game will be the second of three home games to close out the regular season for UE. Evansville has played well inside Meeks Family Fieldhouse with seven wins on their home floor. The Aces have also had strong home crowds during the season, averaging over 600 fans a game during the 2024-25 season. This season has been UE’s best average season attendance in Meeks since it became women’s basketball’s home arena during the 2017-2018 season. Attendance for Evansville women’s basketball has steadily grown over the past four seasons with a 34.2% increase from 2023-24 to 2024-25.
The Aces end the regular season with two of the top teams in the Missouri Valley Conference playing in the River City. UE starts the team’s final week with one of the three teams vying for the MVC Regular Season Title on Thursday in the Murray State Racers. Murray State is currently in a three-way tie for the Valley season title with Missouri State and Drake as all three have identical 14-4 conference records. The Racers come into Meeks on a five game winning streak and with the NCAA’s leading active scorer forward Kaitlyn Young. Young is now the program record holder at Murray State for both career scoring with 2,888 points and career rebounds with 1,180 rebounds.
Evansville will end the regular season with a Saturday afternoon contest with the Belmont Bruins. Similar to the Racers, Belmont is also tied in the MVC standings at 13-5 with Illinois State for fourth place going into the final week of the regular season. The Bruins won their last two home games over Southern Illinois and Missouri State last week to snap a four-game losing skid that took Belmont out of contention for a regular season title. The Bruins are led by senior forward Kendal Cheeseman and sophomore guard Jailyn Banks as the two average 12.7 and 12.6 points a game respectively.
Sophomore Maggie Hartwig (Sauk City, Sauk Prairie HS) continues to lead the Aces on both offense and defense. The forward is currently on a four-game double-double streak, the longest such streak by a UE player since forward Mallory Ladd had six straight double-double performances in her sophomore season of 2012-13. During Valley play Hartwig has averaged 16.2 points and 9.3 rebounds and for the season is averaging 16.8 points and 9.4 rebounds. Hartwig is in the Top 10 in the conference in both scoring and rebounds currently ranking sixth in scoring and third in rebounding. Nationally Hartwig is ranked 95th in scoring and 48th in rebounding.
