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This is Roberts Stadium’s final year as the home for University of Evansville basketball, and victory number 600 for the Purple Aces in the 55-year-old arena could come Sunday. Tip-off against the Bradley Braves is at 1:05 CST. Now 7-2 at home this season, the Aces take a 599-230 all-time record at Roberts into Sunday’s Missouri Valley Conference game.
The 9-9 Aces have already matched their win total from last season, when they finished 9-21. They are 7-2 at Roberts Stadium with six home games remaining. The Aces have won more than 10 home games just once in the past decade, in 2008-09 when they were 15-4.
Bradley was picked to finished fifth in the Missouri Valley Conference, but the Braves are 0-8 in the league after losing two key players, Sam Maniscalco and Taylor Brown, to season-ending injuries. Maniscalco was a pre-season first team all-MVC pick, and Brown was a pre-season honorable mention (second team) selection.
In their three MVC wins, Evansville has held the opposition to 59, 54 and 51 points. In the five losses, the opponents have scored 91, 74, 67, 65 and 65 points.
Evansville’s top two scorers were held to their season lows in Tuesday’s 67-55 loss at Southern Illinois. Colt Ryan (16.1 ppg coming into the game) scored six points on 2-for-10 shooting. Kenneth Harris (10.4) was held to three points on 1-for-6 shooting. Taking up much of the slack was senior center Pieter van Tongeren, who tied his career high with 18 points. van Tongeren came into the game with a 6.4 scoring average. Piet has hit 21 of his last 32 shots over the last five games.
Pieter van Tongeren’s eight field goals at Southern Illinois have put him back into the MVC stat rankings. Now that he has made the required three field goals per game, van Tongeren is number one in the Valley in field goal goal percentage at 65.1 percent. He is the only player in the league shooting 60 percent or better.
Third leading scorer Ned Cox (7.8 ppg) has come off the bench in all 18 games. Cox hit two 3-pointers Tuesday at Southern Illinois, marking the first time since Dec. 5 that he made more than one. Although he’s shooting only 29 percent from 3-point range, the 6’1” sophomore is shooting 58 percent inside the arc.
