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. 
 
Looking Ahead
SEMO Women's Basketball will return to action on Sunday, November 17, when they travel to Eastern Kentucky. Tip-off is set for 2 p.m.