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Winners of seven of their last nine games, and in a fourth place tie with Indiana State, the University of Evansville men's basketball team will try to win at Peoria for the first time since 2003 when the Purple Aces (14-10, 8-6) take on the Bradley Braves (8-17, 2-12) Saturday night.  Game time is 7:05 CST at Carver Arena.  After an 0-11 start in league play, the injury-plagued Braves have won two of their last three.

•Evansville hung on to beat Bradley 70-67 at Roberts Stadium Jan. 23.  The Aces need two more league wins to finish with a winning record in MVC games for the first time since their MVC championship season of 1999.

•The only time in the last decade that Evansville was this high in the MVC standings this late in the season was two years ago.  The fourth place Aces took a 7-7 league record into Peoria on Feb. 14, 2009 to play the Braves, who were also 7-7 at the time.  Bradley won 86-79, and the Aces eventually finished 8-10 in the league and tied for fifth place.  Since winning the MVC title in 1999, Evansville’s best finishes have been fifth place in 2003 and fifth place in 2009.

•Evansville is 2-5 in MVC road games, with wins at Illinois State and Indiana State.  The last time Evansville won three or more league road games was 2000-01, when the Aces were 3-6.

•In this nine-game stretch that has produced seven wins, balance has been the key. The top seven scorers are averaging between 5.9 and 12.2 points.  The season scoring leaders, Colt Ryan and Kenneth Harris, are shooting just 38% and 39%, respectively, in the last nine games.  But Pieter van Tongeren (.660), Clint Hopf (.588), Lewis Jones (.538), Troy Taylor (.520) and Kavon Lacey (.500) have combined to shoot 56%.  As a result, the Aces are shooting 46% as a team in the last nine games while holding the opposition to 41% shooting.  

•Kavon Lacey has scored in double figures just four times this season, but three times in the last five games.  The senior guard is 11-for-17 from the floor in the last three games.  He also ranks in the MVC’s top six in assists with 3.0 per game.

•Evansville’s bench outscored Northern Iowa’s bench 39-5 in Tuesday’s 70-62 win. Ned Cox led the non-starters with a career-high 16 points, Lewis Jones scored eight and Clint Hopf added seven.

•If senior center Pieter van Tongeren maintains his current 65% accuracy from the field, it will be the sixth best shooting percentage in MVC history.  van Tongeren is averaging exactly three field goals per game, the minimum needed to qualify for the MVC rankings.