EVANSVILLE, Ind. – The University of Evansville men's basketball team returns home to the Ford Center on Wednesday for a 6 p.m. game against Loyola. The game will be carried on ESPN+ along with the Purple Aces Radio Network.
Setting the Scene
- Evansville has come extremely close to their elusive first conference win in the last two games; following an overtime game against Southern Illinois last week, the Aces held a 1-point lead inside of four minutes remaining on Sunday at Bradley
- In the first contest between UE and Loyola, the Ramblers outscored the Aces by a 54-16 margin in the paint on their way to a 78-44 victory
- Marquise Kennedy led LUC with 20 points on an efficient 8-for-9 shooting day
- When you look at the series, the Ramblers have won four of the last five games, but Evansville held strong on its home floor last season, dealing the Ramblers a 67-48 loss on January 8, 2019
- K.J. Riley was the top performer in that game, posting 15 points while hitting six of his nine attempts; he added seven assists and five rebounds
Last Time Out
- On Sunday at Bradley, the Purple Aces opened up an early 6-2 lead before the Braves would go up by as many as 14 points in the second half
- Evansville battled back each time and took a 1-point lead inside of four minutes remaining before a late run by the Braves saw them take a 69-58 win
- Leading the Aces was Evan Kuhlman, who chipped in 13 points and a career-high nine rebounds
- John Hall finished with 12 points while Jawaun Newton and K.J. Riley added 11 and 10, respectively
- Trailing by a 44-30 margin in the opening minutes of the second half, the Aces used a 16-2 run to get back into it and would take a 54-53 lead with 3:56 on the clock
- An and-one by the Braves got them started on a game-ending 16-4 run that saw them take the 11-point win
Up-Tempo Sophomore
- Taking care of the ball has been a specialty of UE sophomore Shamar Givance, who is back on top of the MVC in assist-to-turnover ratio with a tally of 2.9 for the season
- In his last five games, Givance has recorded 16 assists and just four turnovers in 99 minutes of work
- Givance is starting to find his groove from outside as he converted all three attempts on his way to nine points against Drake and is 4-of-9 from long range in the last seven games
- He has 58 assists against just 20 turnovers in his 510 minutes on the floor
Locked In
- UE has excelled over the last three games in limiting assists and forcing turnovers - the opposition has 20 assists against 36 turnovers over that stretch
- The three games prior to that opponents them finish with 50 helpers and 22 turnovers
Scouting the Opponent
- Loyola has posted a 16-9 record through its first 25 games while accumulating an 8-4 record in Valley games
- Cameron Krutwig continues to rank among the top players in the conference and paces the Ramblers with 15.2 points and 8.0 rebounds per game
- Aside from those numbers, Krutwig has a team-best 108 assists, which ranks second in the league and has 18 blocks
- Tate Hall has notched 13 points and 3.9 boards, both second on the team
- Marquise Kennedy is third with 9.1 PPG, but in the first meeting against the Aces, was 8-of-9 from the field on his way to 20 points
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