Aces Play At Home On Saturday and Sunday
A pair of home contests await the University of Evansville men’s basketball team welcomes Austin Peay and Midway to the Ford Center. UE faces the Governors on Saturday before taking on the Eagles on Sunday; both games begin at 3 p.m.
Dru Smith had a great week in leading UE to a pair of wins; the guard finished with 21 points per game, 4 rebounds and had 13 assists against just three turnovers. He had a career-high 25 points on Dec. 5 at Bowling Green; it marked Smith’s top game at UE, passing his 19 scored at Wichita State last season. Smith will miss up to four weeks with a stress fracture.
This weekend, the Aces play home games on consecutive days for the first time since playing three in a row in 2012 in the Coaches vs. Cancer event. That year, UE took on Buffalo, Yale and Western Illinois from Nov. 15-17. Prior to 2012, the last time playing that many home games in consecutive days came in 2006 when the team played Miami, Cleveland State and Buffalo.
A great senior season continued for Blake Simmons, who has averaged 15 points per game over the last three games. Simmons finished with 17 points against Oakland City before scoring 16 at BGSU and 12 versus Canisius. This current streak is just behind his top 3-game scoring output came in his freshman campaign, scoring 47 in three games. He is on pace for his top college season, averaging 11.1 PPG; his best season came in 2013-14 when he finished with 9.3 PPG. He has scored at least nine points in eight of the last nine games and is shooting 52.5% from outside, 6th in the MVC.
Over the course of the opening ten games of the year, the Purple Aces have connected on 148 out of 192 free throw attempts, 77.1%. The percentage ranks 25th in the country; Evansville’s opponents have hit 90 free throws in 143 attempts, 62.9%. UE has hit an average of 5.8 more free throws per game than the opposition.
Austin Peay heads north to Evansville with a 4-5 record after dropping a 64-57 game last time out at Illinois. Dayton Gumm leads the way for APSU with 12.8 points per game and has hit a team-high 11 triples. Terry Taylor checks in with 12.7 PPG while Averyl Ugba sits at 12.0. Taylor is the top rebounder on the squad, totaling 8.1 caroms per game through the Governors’ opening nine contests.
UE welcomes Midway College on Sunday. The Eagles are located in Midway, Ky., which is between Frankfort and Lexington. They are members of the NAIA and stand at 4-7 on the season. Midway faces Indiana University Kokomo on Saturday before heading to Evansville.
