Game Notes

EVANSVILLE, Ind. –Following a stretch of playing two of three games on the road, the Purple Aces return home on Wednesday to face Miami (OH) at the Ford Center with tipoff set for 7:05 p.m.
 
Evansville will play its next four games at home before wrapping up the non-conference slate with a road trip to Butler on Dec. 22.  The Aces will play their next four games in their home venue; it is just the fourth time since the beginning of the 2003-04 season that UE has played four straight home games.  In the last three stretches, Evansville has been extremely successful, winning 10 out of those 12 games. The top streak came in early 2006-07 when the Aces went 4-0, picking up wins over Cleveland State, Buffalo, SEMO and UT-Martin.
 
#D.J. Balentine# posted one of the best efforts by a freshman in UE history in Saturday’s game at Colorado State. The Kokomo, Ind. native registered 26 points on 10-of-15 shooting while hitting six three-pointers, moving him up to sixth place in the Valley with 2.1 treys per game.  His outing against the Rams was the top effort by a freshman since Colt Ryan notched 31 at Creighton in his freshman campaign of 2009-10. It also marked the top scoring output for a UE player this season.  Balentine is now the top scorer for UE, averaging 11.3 points per game while ranking among the leaders in the MVC with 15 three-pointers on the season.
 
Over a 4-game stretch, senior Colt Ryan missed two games while playing a combined ten minutes in the other two; he has returned to his regular form in the last two games while averaging 27 minutes in those two contests.  Ryan led the Aces with 13 points and seven assists in the win over Alabama A&M before scoring a season-high 20 at Colorado State where he hit 9-of-19 shots while recording three steals and three assists.
 
Evansville has done a great job of spreading the ball around this season while not depending on any single player to spark the offense. That is shown in the disparity in UE’s bench scoring when compared to that of its opposition.  Evansville’s bench has outscored its opponents bench by a 192-123 margin this season, an average of 9.9 PPG. The bench has done even better over the last week, finishing with a 41-12 advantage versus Alabama A&M while outscoring Colorado State’s bench by a 32-12 margin, an average of 24.5 PPG.
 
The RedHawks enter Wednesday’s contest versus the Aces with an even 3-3 mark; their wins have come against Grambling State, William and Mary and James Madison while they have fallen to NC State, Louisville and IPFW.  A pair of MU players averaged double figures in scoring, led by Allen Roberts, who scores 12.3 points per game; Reggie Johnson is just behind with 11.  Miami was edged by IPFW last time out on Saturday by a 57-56 final; Will Felder led the way with 15 points and 8 rebounds while Roberts tallied 11.
 
Evansville picked up a 77-75 win over the RedHawks last season in Oxford.  UE now owns an 8-4 edge in the series and is 5-1 in home games versus MU.