Looking to bounce back from an 88-64 blowout loss to Drake, the UNI women’s basketball team dominated the University of Evansville Purple Aces on Friday night, advancing to 11-7 on the season.

UNI started the game with a 16-0 run, and wouldn’t look back. Evansville finally got on the scoreboard with 3:47 left in the first quarter with a free throw, making the score 16-1.

The Panthers continued their dominance throughout the first half, not letting up a field goal until the 8:02 mark in the second quarter, making it 24-5.

The purple and gold took a 37-17 lead going into halftime. A big key to the 20-point halftime lead was only committing one turnover in the first half.  

“I thought we did a terrific job of taking care of the basketball, and that’s one of the things that, obviously, we really emphasized coming off the Drake game is valuing the basketball,” said head coach Tanya Warren.

The Panthers gained their largest lead (31 points) with 1:48 left in the fourth quarter on the way to a 74-46 rout.

“From start to finish we were locked in on both ends of the ball,” Warren said.

Abby Gerrits led the Panthers in scoring with 11 points. Karli Rucker added 10, followed by Mikaela Morgan, Ellie Howell and Alyssa Iverson scoring nine points each. Iverson scored the first points of her career as a Panther. 

Nicole Kroeger dished out a game-high eight assists and Heidi Hillyard pulled down a team-high eight rebounds.

Following their contest with Evansville, the Panthers traveled to Indiana State University to take on the Sycamores on Sunday, Jan. 27.