K.J. Riley to be recognized on Saturday
The final game of the regular season for the University of Evansville men’s basketball team when the Purple Aces welcome Illinois State to the Ford Center for a 1 p.m. game on Saturday. The game will be career on ESPN3 and the Purple Aces Radio Network.
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Setting the Scene
– K.J. Riley will play his final home game as a member of the UE squad; he transferred to UE from Howard College in Texas and has improved in each of his three seasons with the Aces
– Through eight Senior Day games at the Ford Center, the Aces are 5-3, but are 2-3 over the last five seasons
– Between 2009 and 2014, Evansville was victorious in six consecutive regular season home finales
– Senior Day of 2015 saw UE and Illinois State battle in an overtime thriller with the Redbirds hanging on for a 69-67 win
– In the series between the squads, Illinois State has won 10 in a row over the Aces and 13 out of 14
– Evansville won four home games in a row over ISU between 2011 and 2014, those are the only UE home wins in the series since 2007
Last Time Out
– A hot-shooting UNI squad finished at 62.7% on Wednesday to take an 84-64 win over the Purple Aces at the McLeod Center
– The Panthers led by 13 at the half before UE rallied to cut the deficit to six in the early moments of the second period
– The Panthers were able to slowly pull away to clinch a perfect home record on the season
– Jawaun Newton and Evan Kuhlman led the way with 13 points apiece
– Newton’s final tally marked his career high; he hit six of his ten attempts and had five boards
– Kuhlman knocked down three out of five triples while dishing out four assists
K.J. 1K
– In the first half of the Feb. 20 game at SIU, senior K.J. Riley reached the 1,000-point mark for his career becoming the 50th player in program history to do so
– Riley is wrapping up his career playing some of his best basketball; he has scored at least eight points in ten consecutive games while averaging 12.5 points on the season
– His shooting accuracy is as high as it has been in his UE career at 46.5%; he has improved on that in each season
– Riley led UE with 15 points against Indiana State before scoring eight at UNI; he has at least eight tallies in 10 straight games
Another Scoring Mark
– The recent roll for Jawaun Newton continued with him setting his career scoring high with 13 points on Wednesday evening at UNI
– Newton was 6-for-10 from the field while hauling in five rebounds
– He has chipped in at least six points in nine out of the last ten games; over that time, he is shooting 64.3% hitting 36 out of 56 attempts while going 10-for-15 from long range
– Newton has shot 50% or better from the field in 10 consecutive contests
– Through his first 17 games of the season, Newton scored six points just three times
– Over his first 48 college contests, Newton did not reach double figures in points, but has done so in five of his last nine games
Scouting the Opponent
– Illinois State enters Saturday’s regular season finale with a 9-20 record and are 4-13 in the Valley; ISU is locked into the #9 seed for next week’s Arch Madness
– They are 1-4 over their last five games, but defeated Drake last weekend by a 57-53 final and took Bradley to overtime on Wednesday in their final home game
– Zach Copeland averages a team-best 14.8 points per game while also pacing ISU with 77 assists and 31 steals
– Keith Fisher III has a team-high 5.9 rebounds per game
– Jaycee Hillsman is third on the team with 8.3 points and second with 4.2 rebounds
– Hillsman scored 20 points in the first meeting between the schools this year, hitting four out of five 3-point tries
