Seniors looking forward to Arch Madness
ST LOUIS –The regular season is done and now it is time to prepare for the trip to St. Louis for Arch Madness for the #2 seed Purple Aces. It is a good beginning to the week for the University of Evansville as seniors D.J. Balentine and Egidijus Mockevicius have earned a spot on the All-Missouri Valley Conference First Team.
For Balentine, it marks the third year in a row that he has been on the squad. It is the second in a row for Mockevicius. Mockevicius was also named to the All-Defensive Team for the third time in his career.
All-time program scoring leader D.J. Balentine garnered a spot on the team as he once again led the league in scoring, posting an average of 20.7 points per game. In the February 6 game against Missouri State, Balentine set the program scoring mark, passing Colt Ryan’s career total of 2,279 in his career.
Balentine goes into Arch Madness with 2,409 career points and will finish his career fourth in the MVC behind Hersey Hawkins, Oscar Robertson and Larry Bird. Posting 20 points for the third year in a row, Balentine joins Doug McDermott and Tyler Haws as the only three players in the NCAA over the last five years to average that mark for three consecutive years.
He has scored in double figures in 30 out of 31 games this season while scoring at least 16 in each of the last seven outings. His season mark of 32 points came in an important road win at Murray State in December. Balentine’s most clutch performance came in the road win at Southern Illinois as his 3-pointer at the buzzer sent the game to overtime, eventually leading to an Aces win.
Mockevicius finished the regular-season as the nation’s leader in rebounding with 14.0 per game and double-doubles with 26. He enters Arch Madness riding a streak of nine double-doubles in a row, including a 14-point, 16-rebound effort in the regular season finale versus UNI.
He is the only player in the NCAA to record four games with 20 rebounds or more. Three of those outings have come in league play, including 20 in a hard-fought road win at Illinois State.
The top shooter in the MVC has connected on 65.7% of his attempts this season, knocking down 184 of his 280 attempts. One of the main attributes that has made him into an even bigger force has been his ability to stay out of foul trouble this year. That has resulted in him playing an average of 32.3 minutes per game, ranking 9th in the MVC.
