EVANSVILLE, Ind. – With regular season play completed, the Purple Aces enter next week’s Missouri Valley Conference Tournament as the third seed and will face off against Missouri State on Friday evening at 8:30 p.m.
 
The tournament is set to take place at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis.  Evansville finished the year with a 15-14 mark and an even 9-9 record in the Valley.  Five squads finished with an identical 9-9 mark and the tiebreaker went to the Aces, who finished with a 5-3 record in the round robin tiebreaker.
 
Missouri State enters the tournament as the sixth seed after going 3-5 against the round robin teams.  The two teams played today at the Ford Center with the Aces taking a 75-70 overtime win.  Both games this season between UE and MSU went to overtime.
 
With just one game separating third place and eighth place, the standings were the closes ever in the 105-year history of the MVC.
 
Wichita State finished as the top seed in the league on the strength of a 26-4 mark and a 16-2 league record.  Creighton enters the tournament as the No. 2 seed with a 25-5 overall record and a 14-4 tally in the Valley.
 
For ticket information, a full bracket and all information on Arch Madness, visit the MVC website at www.mvc-sports.com.