You never want to lose, but if you must then you really can't ask for a much better way to go about it than the Sugar Bears did tonight. Played hard, played pretty well, and by all accounts really made some strides as a team. With only a three-game swing in Phoenix between now and GSC play, it's just about the time to start turning the corner and turning into the powerhouse team they should be.

Some think that Evansville is better than Arkansas State (who absolutely blasted the Sugar Bears back in November), and while I'm not necessarily convinced there, it's easy to see the team has come a long way (and gone a long way in doing it. Come home, please).

The offense looked a little more in rhythm, and the team was getting the shots they wanted early in the game but couldn't get them to fall. Both teams started the game 4-12 from the floor, but the Sugar Bears were actually defending the Aces pretty well. On the other end, the Aces weren't laying down, but the UCA offense was working quite well and resulting in a lot of open jumpers and a couple gimmes inside. If they keep that up, eventually those shots are going to start falling. Lauren Williams isn't going to 3-13 every night, and her, Piggee and Caronica combining for just 10-33 isn't the norm.

On the boards the Sugar Bears got kicked around pretty good, giving up 25 OREBs and grabbing only 30 total boards themselves. The encouraging thing is that, even though at a decided height disadvantage, they battled on the block, tipping a lot of balls around and keeping them in play but never quite being able to haul them in. That's the right thing to do against a formidable crew you can't just consistently go up and grab the ball from (that is if that whole "blocking out" thing isn't working). Tip it around and hope your quicker players can get to it first, or at the very least make them start over from outside. Off 25 OREBs the Aces got just 19 second-chance points. That's a lot more than UCA got or what you want to give up, but giving up 19 points off 25 OREBs is decent.

(Quick aside: This is a real conversation between Kai and myself:
Kai: So, when do you think we'll play a UE again?
Me: Next year.
Kai: Uhh ... oh yeah. I remembered that as soon as I said it.
This is what goes down at 2:15 in the morning)

So what else was good from a UCA perspective? The Sugar Bears played the passing lanes pretty well on defense, getting several steals and even more deflections. They were credited with nine steals (which ain't bad) but that's not an accurate representation of how well they played the ball most of the night. The Aces were able to get a lot of good looks close to the basket, behind the Sugar Bears' D, but for the most part UCA was able to recover relatively quickly and alter some shots. Brittany Greer alone had four blocks in 22 minutes. Fear.

The Sugar Bears played the last several minutes in major foul trouble with Caronica picking up her 4th with 7:00 left, Victoria with 6:22 and Piggee with 4:42. Vic fouled out at 2:24 and Caronica at :34.5. Piggee never fouled out, but she gave it a good try.
The officiating as a whole wasn't so bad, but two fouls on Caronica were absolute garbage. Her third (I think), with 15:21 to go, came when she poked the ball away from the handler's left hand back behind her to the right side, and went to retrieve it. There wasn't anything close to contact, but she got rang up for the reach. On the fourth, as the ballhandler seemingly got a step on her, she reached around from the back side and poked it loose and was again whistled for it. There's not much I hate more than anticipation calls. Go ahead and wait for the play to happen, okay hoss? Don't just start blowing away. Late whistles are better than early whistles.

Other positives from the Evansville game:
- Allyson Sample's four 3s, and the fact it only took six tries.
- The two centers (Richards and Oden) going 3-for-4 on 3-pointers.
- That Victoria and 3LW can walk and see. (The hype was true. Evansville likes to bang.)
- Piggee seemingly getting more confidence in her shot.

And some negatives:
- The absence of Renita Dobbins.
- The absence of free throws for people other than Randle and Sample (They were 14-20, the rest of the team was 0-0).
- 27 Turnovers.
- Losing.

And finally, some interesting factoids:
- The game was the first regular-season game against a D-I foe in program history. It was also the first Division II opponent for UE since 1989.
- Ayako Nakane, a reserve freshman guard for UE, is the second Japanese player in school history. She follows the great Shinko Ono, who played from 1998-2002 and may or may not be related to Yoko.
- Neither team's #00 played, as both are injured. UCA's Katie Nicholson has a partially torn ACL, and UE's #00 went ahead and shredded hers and will miss the entire season. Her last name is Gaybrick.
- UE's Katie Fisher was born with six fingers on each hand. This makes it impossible to flip people off.
- The win was UE's first on a Wednesday this season, and also their first night victory. Their SID is the first, and only, person to care. Coming into the game, the Aces were 1-4 when his wife Amy was not in attendance. No word on whether she was in the house last night.