Game Notes

EVANSVILLE, Ind. – On Saturday, the University of Evansville men’s basketball team will play host to Murray State beginning at 1:05 p.m. at the Ford Center in a contest that will also be carried live on ESPN3.
 
Evansville improved to 5-3 after picking up another dominating home victory, taking down Miami (Ohio) by a final score of 94-68. Colt Ryan led the way with an 18-point effort while #D.J. Balentine and Ned Cox# registered 15 apiece.  Troy Taylor finished the night with a season-high 11 points and nine rebounds.
 
Over the last two contests, Balentine has been lights out, averaging 20.5 PPG while connecting on 11-of-15 three-point attempts; the win over the RedHawks marked his most accurate outing as he hit five of his six treys while finishing with three assists and a pair of steals.
 
Balentine has been moving up the MVC list for the season at a drastic pace as he ranks 4th in the league with 2.5 threes per game while ranking fifth in his long range shooting, hitting 48.8% of his attempts from outside.
 
For the second time in three games since his return from injury, Colt Ryan led the way for Aces offense; he notched 13 points in the win over Alabama A&M before tallying 18 against Miami (Ohio); sandwiched in the middle was a 20-point effort at CSU.  In that run, the Batesville, Ind. native has averaged 17 points per game while notching 18 assists and seven steals.
 
Relentless effort in practice resulted in freshman Adam Wing seeing a career-high 17 minutes of action against Miami.  That effort paid off as the Morehead, Ky. product his 4-of-5 shots while finishing with a career-best 9 points to go along with 5 rebounds and a blocked shot.
 
Fans have been treated to some great games at the Ford Center as UE topped Alabama A&M by a 72-46 final before grabbing a 94-68 win over Miami earlier this week.  Back-to-back wins by 25 points or more at home have been hard to come by; the last time UE did so was in 2009-10 with wins over Oakland City and SIU Edwardsville to begin the year; the last time the Aces won by that margin over two Division I opponents came in the 1999-00 season as UE took down Morehead State, 78-48, before downing Charleston Southern in its next home contests by a score of 96-67.  Evansville posted 94 points in the win over Miami; the last time the Aces put up that many points at home was in the 2004-05 season opener as UE topped Central Michigan by a 100-85 final.
 
The Aces have done an outstanding job in their rebounding over the last four games, winning that battle on three occasions; over that span, UE has outrebounded the opposition by an average of 5.5 per game.  Against Miami, Evansville finished with a 38-13 edge on the boards; the 13 rebounds allowed by UE was the fewest since Marty Simmons became the UE head coach prior to the 2007-08 campaign.  Since the beginning of the 2011-12 campaign, Evansville is an impressive 8-1 when outrebounding the opposition.
 
Murray State comes into Saturday’s tilt with a 6-1 mark that includes victories over Auburn, St. John’s and Old Dominion; their lone loss came to nationally-ranked Colorado by just seven points.
 
The Racers are led by Preseason All-American Isaiah Canaan, who has lived up to the hype by averaging 21.4 points per game, a total that is 11th in the nation; Ed Daniel has also been stellar, averaging a double-double with 16.6 PPG and 11.7 rebounds per contest.  MSU ranks in the top 40 in a pair of shooting categories including field goal percentage (47.3%-40th) and 2-point FG percentage (54.1%-27th).