Game Notes
EVANSVILLE, Ind. – The Purple Aces men's basketball team will look for its first triumph in Carbondale in 13 years as they face Southern Illinois at SIU Arena on Saturday afternoon at 3:05 p.m.
Blake Simmons notched a career-high 16 points on 6-of-8 shooting to lead UE against UNI on Wednesday night. He finished with three rebounds as each player who stepped on the floor for Evansville grabbed at least two boards. Simmons remains as the top scoring true freshman in the Missouri Valley Conference.
UNI dropped in 14 3-pointers on their way to an 80-53 victory over the Purple Aces on Wednesday evening; the number of treys given up was the most since Drake drained 15 in a 101-96 OT win on 3/1/07 at the MVC Tournament. The last time the Aces gave up 14 treys in a regulation outing was versus Mississippi on 12/17/03 when the Rebels were 14/30.
For the first time this season, sophomore D.J. Balentine failed to reach double digits as he finished the UNI game with eight points on 3-of-11 shooting while missing 2 of his 4 free throw attempts. Even with the setback, Balentine remains the MVC scoring leader at 21.8 points per game; he is 11th in the NCAA. Prior to his 8 points against the Panthers, the lowest output of the season for Balentine was 12 points against Jackson State when he shot 3-of-13.
Southern Illinois comes into the first of two meetings against the Aces sporting a 5-11 overall mark and improved to 1-2 in the Valley with a 71-67 win at Loyola on Wednesday. Desmar Jackson is the No. 2 scorer in the league and leads the way for SIU at 21.2 points per game; he has shot 50.7% this season while posting 37 steals, tops in the league with 2.3 per game. Jackson is coming off of a career-best 31 points on 12-19 shooting against the Ramblers; he also tallied 6 rebounds, 4 steals and 4 assists in the game.
Evansville native and Bosse High School graduate Jalen Pendleton averages 12.1 PPG and has made four starts this year while playing in all 16 outings. Averaging 10.8 points is sophomore Anthony Beane; Beane is the son of assistant coach Anthony Beane Sr. and was originally a commit to Illinois State before his father took a position on Barry Hinson's staff in 2012.
A series that started on January 13, 1927 continues today when Evansville and SIU meet on the hardwood; the Salukis own a 66-50 lead in the all-time series - Southern Illinois is 41-14 in
Carbondale while the Aces own a 34-22 home mark. Carbondale has been a tough place for the Aces to play as they have fallen in their last 12 visits with the last win coming on Feb. 24, 2001
(79-74); the game was the lone win for UE in a stretch that saw SIU win 15 out of 16 contests versus the Aces. Evansville has won three of the last five matchups, all coming at home.
From Carbondale, the Aces will head a few hours north to Normal, Ill. where they will take on Illinois State Wednesday evening. On January 18, Evansville returns to the Ford Center where they square off against Loyola for the first time with both schools begin a part of the MVC.
