Game Notes

EVANSVILLE, Ind. – Looking for its second Missouri Valley Conference road win of the season, the Purple Aces men’s basketball team travels to Springfield, Mo. for a meeting with Missouri State on Saturday at 2:05 p.m. at JQH Arena.
 
Evansville improved to 5-0 in home MVC games and 11-2 overall at the Ford Center on the strength of a 54-51 overtime win against Northern Iowa on Tuesday night.  Each team had just one player score in double figures as Colt Ryan led the Aces with 23 points and Marc Sonnen was the lone Panther in double digits, finishing with 11.
 
Dating back to the beginning of last season, Evansville has won five out of six overtime contests with the lone loss coming at Creighton last year; UE has won both overtime outings this season with the first coming against Missouri State.  UE overcame a late 7-point deficit to send the game to the extra period; Ned Cox hit the game-tying three with 30 seconds left in regulation.  The 54 points scored in the OT win were the least UE has posted in an overtime triumph since defeating Eastern Kentucky by a 47-44 final in the 1945-46 campaign.
 
In just its second season, the Ford Center has proven to be a tough place for the opposition to play; last season, UE was 11-7 at home before winning 11 of its first 13 home contests this season.  Winning at home has become a regular occurrence for the Aces as they are 11-2 at the Ford Center this season; that matches the mark that the 2010-11 team had while the 2008-
09 squad posted a 10-0 mark at Roberts Stadium before finishing its home slate with a 15-4 record.
 
Colt Ryan has his sights set on becoming just the 14th player in Missouri Valley Conference to score 2,000 points in his career; with a 23-point effort against UNI, he improved his tally to 1,943.  He recently moved up to third on the UE list and is closing in on Marcus Wilson’s second-place total of 2,053.
 
Senior Ned Cox hit what was one of the biggest shots of his career as his 3-pointer with 30 seconds remaining helped the Aces advance into overtime before they earned the victory over the Panthers.
 
Egidijus Mockevicius has grown his game by leaps and bounds since the beginning of the season; averaging 4.4 rebounds per game on the season, the freshman has kicked it into high gear over the last four games, averaging 8.3 per contest, including a career-high of 13 against UNI; over that span, Mockevicius has also hauled in 4.3 offensive rebounds per outing.
 
The No. 4 shot blocker in the MVC has posted ten in the last three games, including a career-high of six last time out; he has been seeing a lot more time on the floor since the beginning of MVC play; in non-conference action, the freshman played an average of 15.1minutes per game but has seen that go up to 20.3 minutes in league play; that culminated in a career best 36 minutes vs. UNI.
 
Missouri State dropped a 91-77 decision at Creighton on Wednesday to fall to 6-16 and 4-6 in the MVC MSU has ball control down to a science as they average just 10.5 turnovers per game, tops in the Valley and 12th in the country; on the opposite end, the Bears average just 62.2 possessions per game, 333rd out of 347 Division I squads. 
 
Anthony Downing leads the Bears with 14.5 points per game and is tied for the team lead with 4.4 boards per contest; in MVC games only, he is the conference leader in assist/turnover ratio at 2.2 and ranks second in free throw shooting, converting on 85.5% of his attempts.  Downing led Missouri State in the game in Evansville, tallying 17 points and ten rebounds while dishing out five assists and swiping three steals.  Marcus Marshall averages 9.9 points while Gavin Thurman has chipped in 8.6 PPG; Thurman was one of four Bears to finish in double figures at Creighton, tallying a team-high 21 points.
 
From Springfield, the Aces will travel to Peoria, Ill. for a Tuesday evening battle against Bradley.