FanFest To Take Place As Aces Welcome Morehead State On Saturday
Aces and Eagles to face off at noon
EVANSVILLE, Ind. – A huge day is on tap Saturday as the University of Evansville men’s basketball team will square off against Morehead State beginning at noon inside the Ford Center.
Fans are encouraged to come out early as FanFest will take place beginning at 10:00 a.m. on Freedom Plaza, which is just outside the Ford Center. The event is free and will have activities for all ages including bounce houses, cornhole, a photo booth, live music and much more. Food vendors and a beer garden will also be available.
Prior to the game, 1,000 purple mustaches will be given out to Aces fans to raise awareness of “No Shave Novemberâ€.  The initiative encourages men to stop shaving to evoke conversation and raise awareness of prostate and testicular cancer. These will be distributed when fans enter the Ford Center and are courtesy of Deaconess.
A solid all-around game saw the Purple Aces get into the win column with an 82-59 win over Alcorn State in Monday’s home opener. Career highs were set or tied across the board with Ryan Taylor (21), Jaylon Brown (19), Christian Benzon (10) and Sergej Vucetic (9) each having their top outings at Evansville. After shooting 60.9% in the first half, Evansville finished the game at a solid 56.3% overall and 40% (6/15) from outside.
It took just seven shots for Ryan Taylor to score 21 points in the win over Alcorn State; Taylor was 5-of-7 from the field with four of those makes being from outside, he also connected on seven of his eight free throw attempts. His 21-point effort tied his career mark while at Ohio University, which he scored on Nov. 15, 2014 against Appalachian State. In 29 minutes of action against the Braves, Taylor also notched 2 rebounds, 2 assists along with a block and a steal. The last UE player to finish with 20 or more points while attempting seven or few shots was Jason Holsinger, who went 6-of-7 from the field (all 3-pointers) and 5/7 from the free throw line to finish with 23 points; that came on January 19, 2008 in a road game at Bradley.
Christian Benzon notched a career-best 10 points on Monday, marking the first double digit game of his UE career. Benzon drained four of his five shots while knocking down both free throw attempts en route to the mark. He has gotten off to a 6-of-9 start from the field while playing 18 minutes per game to begin his senior season.
For the second time in as many games this year and the fifth time overall, Jaylon Brown matched his career-best of 19 points against Alcorn State. A 50.8% shooter last season, Brown stands at an even 50% through the opening two games, notching 19 points in both games. What has improved for Brown is his accuracy from long range; in his junior campaign, Brown hit 30.8% of his triples while this season has seen that number rise to 41.7% (5/12). Brown has averaged 35.5 minutes in the opening two contests and is the only Aces player to average 30 or more minutes.
Willie Wiley has started each game for UE thus far and had one of his best games against Alcorn State. In a career-high 27 minutes, Wiley notched 7 points and 5 rebounds, connecting on 3 of his 4 shots.
Morehead State comes to Evansville with a 2-1 record with wins over Kentucky Christian and Lipscomb before falling in a road contest at Marshall by a final of 85-77 on Wednesday. Xavier Moon and Malik Maitland are each averaging double figures; Moon leads the way with 13.3 points per game while Maitland has notched 11.7 PPG. Moon drained eight shots to pace MSU with 19 points against the Thundering Herd; Maitland finished with 10 points and six assists while Miguel Dicent finished the game with 10 tallies.
