Game Notes

EVANSVILLE, Ind. – The Purple Aces embark on their 20^th season as member of the Missouri Valley Conference when they travel to Des Moines, Iowa to take on Drake with tip set for Wednesday evening at 7:05 p.m.
 
An efficient team effort helped the Purple Aces pick up a 96-61 victory over Grambling on Saturday.  Five UE players registered double figures including D.J. Balentine (20) along with 14-point efforts by Jaylon Brown and Blake Simmons.  Brown's career effort saw him hit all five shots while posting 5 assists.  Simmons finished with a season-high 6 assists and 3 steals while fellow frosh Christian Benzon set career highs in several categories, playing 15 minutes while posting 5 points and 7 rebounds.
 
Wednesday's contest versus Drake officially begins Evansville's 20th season of Missouri Valley Conference play.  Through its first 19 seasons in the league, the Aces have gone 146-195.  Evansville has struggled in MVC openers, going 8-11 overall; road openers have seen UE go 3-16 while home openers have been much better, with the Aces winning 11 out of 19 contests.
 
D.J. Balentine tallied his ninth 20-point effort in 13 tries this season, finishing with 20 tallies on 5-of-12 shooting against Grambling.  He has stood in the top ten in the country all season and continues to stand in eighth place in the NCAA.  He is on pace to have the best season for UE since Parrish Casebier had 25.4 PPG in 1991-92.
 
With 16.5 assists per game, the Aces lead the MVC and are 23rd in the nation.  Over the last three games, UE has had assists on 57 out of 74 made buckets, an astounding average of 77%.  For the season, Evansville has been credited with an assist on 215 out of its 326 makes, an average of 66%, that tally is seventh in the country.
 
One of the surprise teams in the MVC over the first eight weeks of the season has been the Drake Bulldogs, who check in at 9-3 entering Wednesday's opener.  First-year head coach Ray
Giacoletti came to Drake after spending the previous six seasons as an assistant coach at national power Gonzaga.  He has brought a defensive mindset to Des Moines as his team is No. 2 in the league in points allowed with 65.8 points while posting the second-best rebounding squad with 37 boards per game and a +4.2 margin, both second behind Wichita State.
 
Averaging 18.4 points is senior Richard Carter, who is third in the MVC; he leads the league with an average of 2.6 steals per game.  Boston College transfer Jordan Daniels has made a big impact in a short amount of time with Drake; since making his way into the lineup four games ago, Daniels has posted 14 points per game.  Senior center Seth VanDeest is a beast on the boards, posting 4.7 per game, 14th in the league; he is fifth in the league with 2.1 offensive rebounds per outing
 
Evansville and Drake have played a fairly balance series since the Aces entered the MVC in 1995 as the Aces lead the series by the slightest of margins, 20-19.  UE has gone 9-10 in games in Des Moines while defending its home court to the tune of an 11-7 mark.