EVANSVILLE, Ind. – After leading by a deuce at halftime, the UIndy women's basketball team (5-11, 2-4 GLVC) struggled to score down the stretch in a 71-58 loss at No. 22 Southern Indiana (12-2, 4-1) Thursday night. Senior Martha Burse and freshman Taylor Drury combined for 45 points in the losing effort.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
Despite both Burse and fellow-senior-guard Devin Ferguson battling foul trouble in the first half, the Hounds earned a 37-35 edge at the break. UIndy trailed by seven points with four-and-a-half minutes left in the second quarter but finished the half 14-5 run to flip the score.
 
Drury hit two of her three first-half 3-pointers in the aforementioned rally. She finished the first half with 17 points on 7 of 8 shooting.
 
The third quarter proved fatal once again for the Greyhounds, however. After scoring just five third-quarter points in the season's first match-up with the Screaming Eagles, UIndy managed only six points in the third period tonight. Meanwhile, USI strung together a game-sealing 22-4 run spanning the third and fourth quarters.
 
UIndy had just two players finish with more than five points. Senior Martha Burse led the way with a game-high 24 points, while Drury added four points in the second half to finish with a career-high 21 points to go with seven rebounds.
 
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
- The Greyhounds shot better than 45 percent from the floor in the first half, but sank just 7 of 28 attempts after the break.
- Drury is averaging 19.5 points in the last two games.
- Junior Alexa Bailey added six boards, three assists and three steals.
- Senior Sarah Costello chipped in five points and three boards off the bench.
- Junior forward Erin Wood, who recently returned from injury, garnered a season-high 27 minutes played.
 
HOUND BYTES
Head Coach Kristin Wodrich on playing a solid first half but struggling in the third quarter…
"Southern Indiana always has great third quarters, so we needed to come out and stop them; and we did defensively but then we didn't score either. You can't turn the ball over as much as we did tonight and expect to beat the No. 22 team in the country. So I thought our kids played hard, they executed, and it just shows us where we're at if we play hard, and to play toe-to-toe with (USI) two times this year, I'm proud of that, but there are some things we definitely have to clean up."
 
UP NEXT
UIndy return home to host GLVC East Division-leading Lewis University Saturday, Jan. 13 at 1 p.m. ET.