The University of Southern Indiana men’s basketball team concludes the 2017-18 regular season and its four-game road swing with visits to the University of Wisconsin-Parkside Thursday at 7:30 p.m. and Lewis University Saturday at 3 p.m. Thursday’s USI-UW-Parkside game will be the Screaming Eagles’ final visit to Somers, Wisconsin, for a GLVC contest.
Game coverage for all of USI’s game action, including live stats, video stream, and audio broadcasts, is available at GoUSIEagles.com. The games also can be heard on ESPN 97.7 WREF and 95.7FM The Spin.
USI Men’s Basketball Week 15 Notes:Â
USI fighting for seeding in upcoming GLVC Tournament. USI is fifth in the current GLVC Point Rating System, which is being used this season to seed the upcoming conference tournament. The Screaming Eagles are 0.28 behind fourth-place Truman State University and 0.15 ahead of sixth-place Maryville University. A pair of USI wins this week and losses by Truman State or third-place Drury University could propel the Eagles back into the top four. The GLVC Tournament is scheduled for March 2-4 in Edwardsville, Illinois.
Eagles are fifth in first MW Region Poll. USI was fifth in the first NCAA Division II Midwest Region Poll of 2017-18. The top eight teams receive invitations to the NCAA Division II Tournament, scheduled for March 10-13.
Eagles’ slide goes to four with losses. USI has lost four-straight games after falling to William Jewell College, 94-81, and Rockhurst University, 75-70, during the first half of its regular season-ending road trip. Junior guard/forward Nate Hansen led four Eagles to average in double-digits last week with 18.5 points per game. Junior guard Alex Stein followed with 13.5 points per outing, while senior forward DayJar Dickson and freshman forward Emmanuel Little rounded out the double-figure scorers with 12.5 and 10.5 points per contest, respectively.
USI struggling from long range during streak. The Eagles’ long-range shooting has struggled during the last four games, hitting only 22.6 percent (14-62) from beyond the arc. In the five game winning streak prior to the first loss to the University of Illinois Springfield, USI was shooting 38.2 percent (42-110) from downtown.
Stein in the top five. USI junior guard Alex Stein, who was recognized on NCAA.com as one of the NCAA Division II’s top six scorers, is in the Eagles’ top-five all-time for scoring with 1,450 points. Stein is 112 points behind fourth-place Cris Brunson (1,562 points, 2001-05).
Washington and Stein among GLVC, NCAA leaders. Junior guard Alex Stein is first in the league and the NCAA II in free throw percentage (.962; 125-130) and 37th nationally in free throws made (125). Senior guard Marcellous Washington leads the GLVC and ranks 15th nationally for assist-turnover ratio (3.03). USI, as a team, is first in the GLVC and 15th nationally in rebounds (1,092), and second in the league and 21st nationally in rebound margin (7.0 per game).
