Following a break for Christmas, the University of Evansville men’s basketball team looks to begin Missouri Valley Conference play on a high note, traveling to face preseason favorite Missouri State on Tuesday. Game time is 4 p.m. at JQH Arena with ESPN+ and the Purple Aces Radio Network having full coverage.
 Setting the Scene
– On December 21, Evansville wrapped up the non-conference portion of its schedule with an exciting 78-76 overtime win against Murray State
– The Aces finish the opening portion of their slate with a 9-4 record
– DeAndre Williams continues to rank in the top five nationally in shooting, standing third hitting 72.3% of his field goal attempts
– UE heads to JQH Arena, where the team picked up its first road win of the 2018-19 campaign, earning a 70-64 win over the Bears on Jan. 16, 2019
Last Time Out
– In a back-and-forth game that went down to the wire, Evansville was able to hang on for a 78-76 overtime win against Murray State on Dec. 21
– Artur Labinowicz had his top game at Evansville, totaling 24 points on 9-of-12 shooting; he also drained all four outside attempts
– With 18 points, 9 rebounds and 7 assists, DeAndre Williams was within sight of the third double-double in program history
– The Aces shot 50% for the game and led by as many as 17, but the Racers stormed back in the second half to take a late lead before Evansville finished off the win in the extra period
– A total of 7,316 fans were in attendance, the 6th-highest for a UE game at the Ford Center
On a Roll
– Artur Labinowicz had his best game of the season against Murray State, scoring 24 points
– He hit 9 out of 12 attempts and all four 3-point tries while eclipsing his previous season mark of 21 points versus IU Kokomo
– Labinowicz opened the season averaging five points per game through the first two contests
– Since then, he has found a nice rhythm, averaging 13.3 points per game, third-best on the team over that span; he has scored at least 9 points in nine of the last 11 games
Up-Tempo Sophomore
– Sophomore Shamar Givance continues to lead the Missouri Valley Conference in assist-to-turnover ratio with a tally of 4.0
– He has 28 assists against just 7 turnovers in his 258 minutes on the floor
– In the triple overtime thriller against Morgan State, he set his career scoring mark with 15 points while going a perfect 2-2 from outside and 4-7 from the field
– Givance was one of the Aces’ most productive players in the opener versus Ball State and finished with five points; three of those came on a triple at the buzzer to finish the first half
Scouting the Opponent
– Preseason Missouri Valley Conference favorite Missouri State enters the conference opener with a 6-7 mark after dropping their final two non-conference games at VCU and Oral Roberts
– Leading the Bears is Keandre Cook, who has tallied 15.5 points per game; he leads the Bears with 26 3-pointers
– Gaige Prim is second on the team with 13.6 PPG and has connected on 52.3% of his attempts while Tulio Da Silva checks in with 10.5 points and a team-high 7.8 caroms per contest
– MSU outrebounds the competition by 6.8 per game, a tally that is second in the MVC and in the top 50 nationally
