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Eagles conclude regular season with stops at UT Martin and Tennessee State

Evansville/Henderson/Sebree / WREF The REF
Ryan Davenport
Feb 27, 2025 | 5:16 PM
Eagles conclude regular season with stops at UT Martin and Tennessee State


Credit to: usiscreamingeagles.com

EVANSVILLE, Ind. – University of Southern Indiana Women’s Basketball makes its final regular season road trip this week when the Screaming Eagles visit the University of Tennessee at Martin on Thursday at 5:30 p.m. and Tennessee State University on Saturday at 1 p.m.

Both games can be seen with a subscription to ESPN+ and heard on The Spin 95.7 FM.

Southern Indiana (20-9, 12-6 OVC) heads into the final week of the Ohio Valley Conference regular season tied for fourth in the standings alongside the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and one game back of Eastern Illinois University in third place. USI has already clinched its second consecutive OVC tournament berth and is hunting a first-round bye position in a third or fourth seed for the OVC tournament. However, Little Rock does hold the tiebreaker over USI with the Trojans winning both regular-season meetings. USI can finish anywhere between seeds three through five.

Having already solidified its 36th winning season in program history, Southern Indiana also secured its 15th season with at least 20 wins with a victory last time out over Southern Illinois University Edwardsville in USI’s home finale on Saturday. USI has won 20-plus games for the second consecutive season.

On Saturday, USI strolled to a 79-42 home win against SIUE on Senior Night. The Screaming Eagles jumped out to a double-digit lead within the first five minutes and never looked back. In a balanced attack, graduate forward Meredith Raley collected her eighth career double-double with 16 points and 10 rebounds to lead the Eagles. Senior guard Vanessa Shafford dropped 14 points, graduate forward Madi Webb scored 11, and sophomore guard Triniti Ralston had 10 points.

The win on Saturday saw Southern Indiana play strong team defense for the second straight game, as USI held both of its opponents last week to under 50 points. The Eagles limited Eastern Illinois last Thursday to only 46 points as part of USI’s homestand sweep. USI’s scoring defense averaged 44 points for the week. The Screaming Eagles had a similar stretch earlier in the season, holding both of their opponents at the Puerto Rico Clasico, Youngstown State University and Le Moyne College, to under 50 points for a scoring defense average of 38 points between the two games.

As a team, USI ranks top three in the OVC in scoring defense (61.8), turnover defense (19.0), field-goal percentage defense (38.1), three-point defense (29.7), and defensive rebounding (26.5).

Following a solid week on the court and the double-double against SIUE, Raley moved into the top five on USI’s career scoring list. Raley is now fourth in USI history with 1,577 career points, passing Kaydie Groom (2014-18; 1,567 points) and Kathy Lauck (1990-94; 1,573 points) during last week’s homestand. Raley is 30 points away from Anna Hackert (2011-15; 1,607 points) for third all time.

Raley is Southern Indiana’s leading scorer on the season with 13.6 points per contest. She also leads the OVC in field-goal percentage shooting over 50 percent. Shafford is second on the squad in scoring with 12.6 points per outing, and junior guard Ali Saunders is third at just over 10 points per game. Collectively, USI averages 71.3 points per game.

UT Martin (12-17, 9-9 OVC) is locked in as the no. 6 seed for next week’s OVC tournament, owning a potential tiebreaker over Western Illinois University after a pair of wins against the Leathernecks this season. The Skyhawks are coming off a split slate last week with a 73-52 win over Tennessee State and a 70-55 loss to Tennessee Tech University.

Junior forward Anaya Brown leads UT Martin with 15 points and nearly six rebounds per game. Sophomore guard Kenley McCarn and redshirt junior guard Shae Littleford are second and third in scoring, respectively, with 13.4 and 10.8 points per outing. The Skyhawks average 66.3 points while allowing 67.1 points per game.

Against UT Martin, USI leads the all-time series, 3-2. In the previous meeting against UT Martin on December 21, Southern Indiana won 69-59 at home. Ralston led USI with 18 points. Shafford and sophomore forward Amiyah Buchanan each posted double-doubles. Shafford had 12 points and 10 rebounds while Buchanan tallied 12 points and 12 boards.

Tennessee State (8-20, 4-14 OVC) enters the final week battling for the final no. 8 seed for next week’s OVC tournament. The Tigers are currently tied with Morehead State University, who Tennessee State will host on Thursday before welcoming USI on Saturday. After a struggle to start the OVC regular season, the Tigers have played better of late with three conference wins in February. However, Tennessee State dropped both of its contests, falling to UT Martin and 84-71 to Tennessee Tech.

Freshman guard Somah Kamara has been a strong bright spot for the Tigers this season and is one of the top freshmen in the OVC. Kamara paces Tennessee State with 13.8 points per game. Senior guard Saniah Parker is second on the team averaging 12 points. Junior guard Aaniya Webb and graduate guard Sanaa’ St. Andre are third and fourth, respectively, with 11.4 and 11.2 points per contest. As a team, Tennessee State averages 64.1 points per game and surrenders 72.7 points per game.

USI also leads its series history with Tennessee State, 3-2. In the last meeting, Southern Indiana opened the conference season in December with a 74-56 home win over the Tigers. Saunders scored a team-high 19 points to lead USI in scoring. Buchanan added 15 points while Raley and Ralston scored 13 and 11 points, respectively.

Following this week’s game, USI will prepare for next week’s Ohio Valley Conference Women’s Basketball Championship Tournament at Ford Center in downtown Evansville. More information about the tournament is available at ovcsports.com/feature/evansville2025 and usiscreamingeagles.com.