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Complete Game Notes
Live Stats Friday
It's time for Arch Madness, and this year it includes an all-Hoosier quarterfinal game. The sixth seeded Purple Aces (15-14, 9-9) take on #3 Indiana State (17-13, 12-6) Friday at 8:35 CST in the last State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Men's Basketball Tournament quarterfinal game of the day at Scottrade Center in downtown St. Louis. Tickets are available at the Scottrade box office.
The UE-ISU winner moves on to Saturday's 4:05 CST semifinals.
•The Aces’ 9-9 league record is their best since the 2000-01 team was 9-9. Evansville has a chance to go 3-0 in the same season against an MVC opponent for only the second time in UE’s 17-year history in the Valley. In 1999, when Evansville won the regular season championship, the Aces were 3-0 against Wichita State.
•UE came back from 17 points down in both games to sweep Indiana State in January. On Jan. 1 at Roberts Stadium, ISU led 23-6 with 10 minutes left in the first half, but Evansville used the 18 points and 13 rebounds of Kenneth Harris to take the lead for good with 5:55 to play, and win 64-59. On Jan. 26 at Terre Haute, ISU led 39-22 in the final two minutes of the first half before freshman Jordan Jahr led UE’s comeback. Playing for foul-plagued Colt Ryan, Jahr totaled 13 points and 11 rebounds in the second half alone. He finished with 16 points and 14 rebounds in UE’s 66-63 victory. In his other 16 MVC games, Jahr had a total of 29 points and 14 rebounds.
•Indiana State held second team all-MVC selection Colt Ryan to 4-for-17 shooting and just 17 points in the two games this season; in fact, as a team Evansville shot only 41 percent against ISU. But the Aces held Indiana State to 38 percent shooting, while grabbing 25 offensive rebounds in the two games compared to 19 by ISU. The Aces averaged twice as many offensive rebounds against Indiana State as they did against the rest of the league.
•The only previous MVC Tournament meeting between the Aces and Sycamores came in 2004, after Indiana State swept the season series. Number 9 seed Evansville got its revenge in the tournament with a 63-59 win over the number 8 Sycamores behind the 17 points and 11 rebounds of Matt Webster. It’s the only time that Evansville has won an MVC Tournament game as the lower seed.
