Aces and Bears to meet on Friday and Saturday
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Just one more weekend remains in the regular season with the University of Evansville welcoming Missouri State to the Ford Center for a pair of games this week. The 2-game series will take place on Friday and Saturday evening with both games beginning at 6 p.m….ESPN+ and the Purple Aces Radio Network will have the coverage.
Setting the Scene                                                                                                          Â
– Evansville enters the final weekend of the season in 5th place in the MVC and hopes to clinch one of the top six seeds at Arch Madness while avoiding Thursday’s play-in round
– Missouri State comes to town with a 6-game win streak and boast the top scorer and rebounder in the Valley
– Facing a tough streak of playing the conference’s top four teams in consecutive series, the Aces look to finish on a high note with its final two home contests
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Last Time Out                                                                                                          Â
– On Monday, Evansville and Drake wrapped up their series in Des Moines with the Bulldogs finishing with a 74-63 victory at the Knapp Center
– Evansville led by a score of 35-31 at halftime, but the Bulldogs rallied in the early minutes of the second half to take the lead for good…Drake outscored UE by a 43-28 margin in the final 20 minutes
– Playing over 37 minutes, Shamar Givance led the team with 17 points while Evan Kuhlman chipped in 16
– Joseph Yesufu scored 36 in the contest…in two games, Yesufu averaged 34 points
Looking Back
– The last time the Aces and Bears wrapped up their regular season at the Ford Center came on Feb. 25, 2012
– Evansville won in overtime by a final of 75-70 and forced a 5-way tie for third in the MVC standings at 9-9…by way of the tiebreaker, UE became the #3 seed and faced Missouri State in the first game and went on to take a 72-62 win in St. Louis to go 3-0 against the preseason MVC favorites
– A loss that day in 2012 would have slid the Aces to 8th place in the final standings
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What Can’t He Do?   Â
– UE junior Shamar Givance continues to do it all on the floor…his average of 3 steals per game at Drake lifted his season average to a league-leading 1.6 per game
– He remains second in the league with 4.0 assists, 11th in scoring (12.8 PPG) and is tied for 8th with 31.6 minutes per contest
– After leading the team with 18 PPG in the Drake series, Givance raised his average over the last eight games to 14.4 PPG…his recent streak came on the heels of the series at Bradley where he scored a total of five points
Pinpoint Accuracy
– Jawaun Newton continues to shoot at an impressive clip and has converted 64.7% of his 2-point attempts since January 2… over that span, he is shooting 55.3% (78-141) overall, 64.7% (66-102) from inside and has shot 57% or higher on eight occasions
– While his accuracy saw a slight dip in the Drake series (8-for-21), his output remained strong as he averaged 11 points per game…in the opener, he tied his career mark with eight rebounds
Scouting the Opponent
– Missouri State enters the final weekend of the regular season with a record of 15-5 overall and 11-5 in the MVC
– Since a 70-50 loss to Loyola on February 1, the Bears have reeled off six wins in a row including a 68-53 win at Southern Illinois on Feb. 17
– The Bears are fourth in the conference standings
– MSU has the top scorer and the top rebounded in the MVC as Isiaih Mosley paces the league with 19.7 points per game and Gaige Prim leads the conference with 9.3 caroms
– Mosley is also the top free throw shooter in the conference, hitting 86.7% of his tries
– Prim is third in the Valley in scoring, checking in at 16.0 points per game
