'We've improved daily': USI women's basketball's loss to Cincinnati shows non-con growth
EVANSVILLE — The University of Southern Indiana women’s basketball team was one shot, one more basket away from a stunning win over Cincinnati. The Screaming Eagles stole the Bearcats’ final inbounds pass with 13.1 seconds remaining, but the final shot bounced off the rim.
Cincinnati players put their hands on their heads, having narrowly avoided an upset. USI players did the same, having nearly pulled off the most famous win of its Division I era.
The contest doesn’t come down to a single shot, one make or one miss. Coach Rick Stein preached as much postgame. One more box out, one more loose ball, an extra rebound here or there, and that one ends in a different fashion from the 58-56 loss Sunday.
The loss, though, showed the Eagles’ growth. Not just over the course of the non-conference schedule, but since this point last year. This isn’t the same USI team that missed the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament last season.
“We’ve used those experiences to help us get better,” Stein said. “So many things that we can clean up and make better, and we will. We’ve done that a lot in the last, not only month, but the last year.
“We’re a better basketball team right now than we were last year. No question about it.”
Sunday’s contest was the first in which the Eagles (4-5) hosted a Power Five program in any sport. The single-possession scoreline shows USI’s growth this season. The fact a high-major program made the trip to Evansville’s West Side shows the growth of USI’s stature in collegiate athletics.
UC needed a game on a specific date last season, USI got a home-and-home out of it.
“Getting games at our place is darn-near impossible right now because, coming in as a new Division I, everybody wants you to come there,” Stein said. “Knowing that we would have a chance to have a Big 12 team coming this year was fun to know. We put ourselves in a position to beat a good team.”
“We continue to grow every day as a team,” guard Vanessa Shafford said. “To have Cincinnati come here to compete with them, it was a really cool experience.”
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The Eagles face NAIA Brescia in their final game before entering OVC play. USI entered Sunday as one of two league teams with a .500-or-better record and one of three with at least four wins. Western Illinois is the lone team with a winning record.
Of the Eagles’ losses, Murray State and Saint Louis are the only ones to come against mid-majors. The Racers have the second-best scoring offense in the country behind LSU, the reigning national champion. The Billikens made the NCAA Tournament last season.
USI’s other losses came against Missouri (Southeastern Conference) and Purdue (Big 10), both power five members. Stein said this is the most difficult schedule in program history. That’s the slate the Eagles needed to prepare for OVC play.
“We just had to find the positive and negative in those and why they were losses,” Shafford said. “You can look at the scoreboard, you can look at all that. Or you can do what we did, which is look in depth of every single game and really tell how we can be better as a unit.
“That’s, I think, where we’re gonna flourish when we find that groove.”
USI, despite a below-.500 record, has improved over last season. The on-court displays in wins over Wright State, Northern Illinois and Eastern Michigan, and even the two-point loss to Cincinnati, show that. The Eagles are deeper and don’t turn the ball over as much. They play a similar brand to last season but have shown they belong on the D-I level.
“It certainly does show you we’ve come a long way,” Stein said. “We’ve improved weekly. We’ve improved daily. … I think we showed it tonight.”
This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: Southern Indiana Eagles: Women's basketball grows against Cincinnati
