Game Notes

EVANSVILLE, Ind. – Six senior will be honored as the University of Evansville men’s basketball team entertains Indiana State in a battle for a top three spot in the Missouri Valley Conference on Saturday afternoon at the Ford Center.
 
Fans are reminded that Saturday’s game is a Kid’s Day as fans who purchase a regular-priced ticket can get a free children’s ticket with their purchase at either the Carson Center or the Ford Center.
 
Set for a 4 p.m. tip on the MVC Network and ESPN3, the Aces (17-13, 9-8 MVC) will look to clinch the third seed in the MVC tournament for the second year in a row.  With a win and a Northern Iowa loss against Illinois State tomorrow, Evansville will take third place.  Should the Panthers win and the Aces top the Sycamores, UE will finish in fourth place while the loser of tomorrow’s regular season finale at the Ford Center will take fifth place in the Valley.
 
Prior to the game, the six seniors for UE (Lewis Jones, Troy Taylor, Colt Ryan, Andy Chinn, Brandon Williams and Ned Cox) will be honored; each will also speak on the floor following the game.
 
Riding a 3-game win streak with wins over Illinois State, a BracketBusters victory at Wright State and an impressive road win at Wichita will make national news and EPSN honored the Aces as the “Team of the Week” in Myron Medcalf’s Mid-Major Report. 
 
With the win at Wichita State, the Aces improved to 17-13 on the season, matching the top win total in Coach Marty Simmons’ tenure at UE (17-14 in 2008-09).  With a win, the Aces will earn their first 18-win season since the 1999-2000 campaign when UE was 18-12 overall.  A win would also give Evansville its first 10-win Valley record since going 13-5 en route to the regular-season championship in 1998-99.
 
Evansville ended a few streaks with a 59-56 triumph in Wichita on Feb. 27.  It marked the first win for the Aces at Koch Arena since Feb. 6, 2001 when they picked up another 3-point win, taking down the Shockers by a final of 77-74.  That season also marked the last time Evansville swept the season series from Wichita State.
 
Under the leadership of Coach Simmons, the Aces have been extremely successful in Senior Day games, winning four out of five games.  The Aces have also posted wins in the last four home senior days, including a 75-70 overtime win over Missouri State last season.
 
Entering Saturday’s game, Colt Ryan has a chance to leave Evansville as its all-time leading scorer.  His 29-point game at Wichita State on Wednesday gives him 2,142 for his career.  He is just 94 points away from tying the record of Larry Humes, which stands at 2,236.  The reigning MVC Player of the Week joined the top five in MVC history in free throws made as his total of six against the Shockers gave him 555 for his career.  He has a chance of catching Bob Harstad of Creighton, who tallied 588 in his career to sit in the fourth spot.
 
Sophomore Jordan Nelson has registered just ten points in MVC play this season, but half of those were some of the most important tallies of his career.  As the Aces battled the Shockers down the stretch, Nelson’s first bucket of the game, a three, ended a scoreless stretch that gave UE its first points in over 7 minutes of play.  Later in the game, his jumper inside of six minutes remaining gave the Aces a 3-point edge that they would not relinquish over the remainder of the game.
 
Indiana State limps into the regular season finale with a 17-12 overall and a 9-8 league mark after falling in four of their last five contests.  Always consistent, Jake Odum leads the Sycamores with 14.2 points per game overall and 14.4 in MVC action; he led ISU with 13 points in Wednesday’s loss to Drake; Odum has 136 assists this season, an average of 4.7 per contest, that is second in the conference.  Manny Arop (12.6 PPG) and R.J. Mahurin (10.3 PPG) also post a scoring average over ten points. 
 
The Sycamores are strong on the defensive end as they boast the top 3-point defense in the
MVC, allowing just 31.5% of the opponents threes to find the bottom of the net.  Inside the arc, ISU ranks second in the MVC in overall shooting defense (41%) and 2-point shooting (45.4%).
 
Evansville will next play in the MVC Tournament on Friday in St. Louis.  The opponent and game time will be determined following the completion of the UNI and Illinois State contest on Saturday night.