Aces and Beacons tip off at 3 p.m.

EVANSVILLE, Ind. – Looking to win three consecutive Missouri Valley Conference games for the first time in three years, the University of Evansville men’s basketball team will be at Valparaiso on Saturday.  Tip is set for 3 p.m. CT with ESPN+ and the Purple Aces Radio Network having the coverage.

Last Time Out

– Overcoming a hot start and second-half rally by UIC, the Purple Aces earned a 77-60 win on Wednesday at the Ford Center

– UE led by seven at the break, but the Flames stormed back to take a 46-45 lead

– The difference was a 14-2 run by the Aces as they led for the remainder of the contest

– Yacine Toumi set a new career mark wtih 22 points; he was 8-of-10 from the field and registered 7 rebounds

– Tanner Cuff also finished with a career mark, totaling 16 points

– Making his return after missing three games was Ben Humrichous; he scored 15 points and tallied 5 boards and 4 assists

– The defense for UE allowed UIC to hit 4 of their first 5 3-pointers, but rebounded to connect on 4 of their final 27 outside tries

 Hitting the Reset Button

– After scoring 20 points on three occasions in his UE career, Yacine Toumi reset his high with 22 points against UIC

– Hitting 8 of his 10 shots, he improved his season shooting to 58.7%, 5th in the MVC

– Over the last 14 games, Toumi has averaged 13.9 points per game (195 total), raising his average from 8.8 to 12.0 PPG

– Toumi has scored 13+ points in each of the last five games

– He scored his prior mark of 20 points on three occasions, including games against SEMO and UNI this season

– Over the last 11 games, Toumi has hauled in 81 boards, an average of 7.4/game

– Toumi posted a career-best 12 boards versus Missouri State and is 8th in the MVC with a season mark of 6.6

Back on the Floor

– Ben Humrichous was back on the floor against UIC after missing the previous 3 games and 8 of the prior 9

– His presence was immediately felt as he finished with 15 points, 5 boards and 4 assists in 16:30 of work

– Humrichous made an appearance on Jan. 17 against Valpo and totaled 7 points in just under 12 minutes of play

Make it Three

– Tanner Cuff’s recent surge continued as he scored a career-high 16 points in the win over UIC; he has now reached double figures in three consecutive games, posting 13 PPG over that stretch

– Cuff scored 13 at UNI before tallying 10 against Illinois State; in the six games prior to the road tilt in Cedar Falls, he averaged 5.0 PPG and did not reach double figures

– Over the last 5 games, Cuff has 10 assists and just 3 turnovers; the 6 games prior saw him post 6 assists and 10 turnovers

– Cuff’s season assist-to-turnover ratio of 2.42 is second in the MVC

Scouting the Opponent

– The Beacons enter Saturday’s contest with a 6-16 record and stand at 2-9 in the MVC

– Since earning an 84-77 win over UIC on Jan. 20, Valparaiso has dropped its last three games, including an 81-70 game at Drake on Wednesday

– Isaiah Stafford leads the way for Valpo with 17.5 points per game

– He has a team-high 30 steals on the season while seeing an average of 30.8 minutes per game

– Stafford went off for 31 points in the first meeting between the teams on Jan. 17

– Cooper Schwieger holds an 11.4 PPG average while pacing the team with 5.7 rebounds

EVANSVILLE, Ind. – University of Evansville graduate first baseman Chase Hug (Indianapolis, Ind./Olney Central/Pike) was ranked among D1Baseball.com’s Top 50 first basemen entering the 2024 season on Friday.  Evansville also had its series-opening game at Indiana State on Friday, May 10 selected for coverage on ESPNU, per an announcement from the Missouri Valley Conference.

Hug ranked 29th among the country’s top first basemen according to D1Baseball.com, one of the premiere collegiate baseball websites.  Hug earned first team all-Missouri Valley Conference honors and MVC All-Defensive team accolades last year after hitting a team-best .311 with 15 doubles, three triples, 14 home runs, 48 RBI and 51 runs scored.  Hug was also named to the MVC All-Tournament Team last May after hitting a pair of home runs in the conference tournament, including his dramatic two-strike, two-out grand slam against Indiana State to win the first of two MVC Tournament finals.

With Evansville and Indiana State squaring off in the Valley Tournament final last year, and with both teams featuring veteran rosters who could potentially vie for the MVC regular-season title this year, the MVC announced on Friday that the series-opener between UE and Indiana State on Friday, May 10 in Terre Haute will be broadcast on ESPNU nationally.  It marks the second year in a row in which the Purple Aces have been selected to play in an ESPNU broadcast.  Evansville returns seven position starters from last year’s 37-24 squad which advanced to the MVC Tournament final, while Indiana State is coming off of a 45-17 season in which they advanced to the NCAA Super Regionals.

Season tickets for UE baseball are currently on sale.  Tickets can be purchased by phone by calling the UE Athletic Ticket Department at 812-488-2623.  Tickets can also be purchased on-line at GoPurpleAces.com/Tickets through HomeTown Ticketing.

The 2024 UE baseball season will kick off February 16 at 2023 College World Series participant Oral Roberts.

VINCENNES, Ind. – 2023 NJCAA All-American and two-time Region 24 Player of the Year Paige Parlanti (Las Vegas, Nev.) signed her letter of intent this week to continue her athletic and academic careers at NCAA Division I Bowling Green State University this fall in Bowling Green, Ohio.

“I chose Bowling Green State University for many reasons,” Parlanti said. “As soon as I stepped on campus, I saw the culture that the school has created and I just knew that I wanted to be a part of it. I know that I will become the very best version of myself by attending BGSU. I have received much help from all the coaches and I know that they will push me to become not only a better athlete, but a better person. I am very grateful to become a Falcon.”

Parlanti earned NJCAA Division I Second Team All-American honors this past season, becoming the first VU volleyball player to receive Division I All-American honors and the first VUVB player to be named an All-American since Audrey Curry in 2006.

Parlanti helped guide the Trailblazers to their best two-year run since moving to Division I in 2016 finishing out her VU career with a combined record of 61-16 and a 26-0 record against Region 24 opponents.

Parlanti led the Blazers to their best season overall since moving to Division I this past season as well, finishing the 2023 campaign with a 32-7 record, the most wins by a VUVB team at the D-I level and guided the Blazers to their third straight undefeated Region 24 Championship.

The Trailblazers advanced to the NJCAA Division I Midwest District A Championship game for the first time in program history and earned the highest National ranking in Division I program history, being ranked No. 18 this past season.

“I am very grateful for all of the awards that I have received while playing on the Vincennes volleyball team,” Parlanti added. “But the accomplishment that I am most proud of was when I received an All-American award. It proved that all the hard work and dedication paid off and I also learned that it is not impossible to achieve such things.”

“We’ve really spent much of the last two seasons discussing Paige’s abilities on the court, but when you look at all of the things that she brings off the court, it’s invaluable,” VUVB Head Coach Gary Sien said. “From her leadership and she was one who did not hesitate to contribute to lead as a freshman and stepped into a leadership role right from the beginning of her freshman year. She as a personality that is going to attract a lot of people. She’s very open, very talkative, very interested in each person on the team. So, when you have that genuine interest and love to work with people, people are just going to flock to you.”

“Those are things that are rare to have, especially with an athlete at that high level,” Sien added. “We are very grateful for her contribution to that end. Also, when it comes to intangibles off the court, her willingness to serve. The team has responsibilities every day, whether it’s setting up the net, laundry, being responsible for things on road trips, Paige was definitely willing to jump in any time we needed something to be done. She’s got a lot of initiative, she would just go and do things that she knew needed to be done without anyone saying it.”

“We didn’t have an assistant coach this past season but because of our sophomores Kennedy Sowell (Effingham, Ill.), Audrey Buis (Franklin, Ind.), Morgan Netcott (Montague, Mich.), Maecy Johnson (Chrisman, Ill.) and Paige, they really picked up a lot of things that seem small, but if they are not done, they can become big,” Sien said. “They really took over things that I needed to do so I was able to focus on other things. They definitely do, as a group, deserve a lot of credit for their contributions to the team this past season. Not only did we have a full season, but we traveled all over the country, thousands of miles on the road and all of the other things that we do. With all of that stuff going on, it would have been pretty difficult for me to have done all of that if they weren’t willing to help out.”