Aces look to move to .500 on the season
 EVANSVILLE, Ind. – Evansville’s stint in the 2018 Maui on the Mainland event will be completed on Sunday when the Purple Aces men’s basketball team welcomes Texas Southern to the Ford Center for a noon contest.
UE shot 49.3% while connecting on 11 3-pointers to defeat Kentucky Wesleyan by a final of 92-72 in Thursday’s home opener. Noah Frederking finished with a career-high 26 points, 19 in the first half, in the win; he was 9-of-14 from the field and 5-6 from the line. K.J. Riley checked in with 16 points while John Hall set his career-high for the second game in a row, posting 13. Trailing by a score of 15-10 in the first half, the Aces finished the opening period on a 47-24 run to hold a 57-39 lead at the break before adding to it for the 20-point win.
Takeaways from KWC game           Â
– With 17 triples at Xavier and 11 more against KWC, the Aces had double digit 3-pointers in consecutive games for the first time since last season against Oakland City and Bowling Green; UE had a total of four games where they hit 10+ three’s last year
– Shea Feehan had a total of two rebounds in the first two games; he finished the KWC game with a team-high of 9
– In its eight home openers at the Ford Center, the Aces are 7-1
– K.J. Riley scored in double digits nine times last year; he is a perfect 3-3 in that department in 2018
– Since turning the ball over 24 times at Illinois, the Aces have committed just 16 turnovers in the last 80 minutes of play
Through three games, UE is averaging 79.0 points per game. That is the highest tally since the 1988-89 season when UE finished with 82.6 PPG. Five players are averaging double figures while six check in with at least 8.3 points.
Sophomore Noah Frederking set his career mark against Kentucky Wesleyan with 26 points; he tied his career mark of 19 points in the first half alone. The Okawville, Ill. product was 9-of-14 from the field, 5-6 from the line and hit three triples. He added four assists and three rebounds in 25 minutes of action. His previous career high of 19 came last season against Midway.
With 13 points against KWC, John Hall has set his career mark in consecutive games after recording 12 at Xavier. Hall was 4-9 from the floor and 2-5 from outside in the home opener. At Xavier, Hall also tied his career mark with 9 rebounds along with 4 field goal makes and 7 attempts. Hall attempted a total of six triples a season ago, he has surpassed that total in three games, going 5-of-12. As a redshirt freshman last season, Hall had a total of 14 assists; he has nine in just the last two games.
Texas Southern heads into Sunday’s match-up with a 1-3 record; their win came in the opener as they defeated Baylor on the road by a 72-69 final. Since then, the Tigers have played road contests at Gonzaga, Iowa State and San Diego State. Jalyn Patterson leads the Tigers with 13 points per game while Trayvon Reed is next with 12.8 PPG; he paces the team on the boards with 11.3 per game. Jeremy Combs is third on the team with 12 points per game.
This marks the first game UE has played against a foe from Texas since facing TCU in 2011 at the Ford Center.
