Game Notes
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If it's Friday, this must be Springfield.  The whirlwind start to the Missouri Valley Conference season continues Friday night when the University of Evansville (7-6, 1-2) plays its third road game in the young MVC season, this time at JQH Arena in Springfield against the first place Bears of Missouri State (11-3, 3-0).  Tip-off is at 7:05 CST.

•The Aces have already played at Wichita State (the only other Valley team to start out 3-0) and at two-time defending league champion Northern Iowa.  By Sunday, when Creighton comes to Roberts Stadium, Evansville will have played four of the five teams that currently have winning records in MVC games.

•Evansville and Missouri State are the only two MVC teams that have used the same starting lineups in every game.

•Evansville trailed by only four points midway through the second half Tuesday at UNI before the Panthers went on a 15-7 run to stretch the lead to 56-44 and eventually win 65-53. Both teams finished with 21 field goals, but the Panthers outscored Evansville 24-9 from three-point range and 15-8 from the free throw line. 

•Sophomore Colt Ryan now ranks among the MVC leaders in four categories.  He is #1 in the MVC in 3-point shooting percentage (.486), #2 in scoring (16.9), #2 in 3-pointers made per game (2.7) and #4 in FT Pct. (.841). Ryan’s overall shooting percentage through 13 games is 45.2 percent, up from 37.6 percent as a freshman.

•Another sophomore guard, Ned Cox, is coming off a season-high 12 points in Tuesday’s game at Northern Iowa.  Cox has struggled from three-point range (10-for-34 for 29 percent) but is shooting 44 percent overall.  Although he hasn’t started a game, Cox has played 20 minutes or more in each of the last five.

•Junior Denver Holmes broke out of a 3-for-11 shooting slump over the previous four games by hitting four of six shots and scoring 11 points Tuesday.  He was also Evansville’s co-leader in assists with four.  Holmes ranks fifth in the MVC in free throw percentage (.833) and seventh in assists (3.0).

•If you combined the shooting statistics of UE’s two centers, Pieter van Tongeren and Clint Hopf, it would come out to 63 field goals in 101 attempts for 62 percent accuracy.  That would rank #1 in the MVC.  Unfortunately, neither has enough field goals to qualify for the MVC rankings.  Hopf has a 7.0 scoring average, and van Tongeren is at 6.2 ppg.  Neither has reached double figures yet in MVC games.