EVANSVILLE, Ind. – The final game of the regular season for the University of Evansville men's basketball team when the Purple Aces welcome Illinois State to the Ford Center for a 1 p.m. game on Saturday. The game will be career on ESPN3 and the Purple Aces Radio Network.
Setting the Scene
- K.J. Riley will play his final home game as a member of the UE squad; he transferred to UE from Howard College in Texas and has improved in each of his three seasons with the Aces
- Through eight Senior Day games at the Ford Center, the Aces are 5-3, but are 2-3 over the last five seasons
- Between 2009 and 2014, Evansville was victorious in six consecutive regular season home finales
- Senior Day of 2015 saw UE and Illinois State battle in an overtime thriller with the Redbirds hanging on for a 69-67 win
- In the series between the squads, Illinois State has won 10 in a row over the Aces and 13 out of 14
- Evansville won four home games in a row over ISU between 2011 and 2014, those are the only UE home wins in the series since 2007
Last Time Out
- A hot-shooting UNI squad finished at 62.7% on Wednesday to take an 84-64 win over the Purple Aces at the McLeod Center
- The Panthers led by 13 at the half before UE rallied to cut the deficit to six in the early moments of the second period
- The Panthers were able to slowly pull away to clinch a perfect home record on the season
- Jawaun Newton and Evan Kuhlman led the way with 13 points apiece
- Newton's final tally marked his career high; he hit six of his ten attempts and had five boards
- Kuhlman knocked down three out of five triples while dishing out four assists
K.J. 1K
- In the first half of the Feb. 20 game at SIU, senior K.J. Riley reached the 1,000-point mark for his career becoming the 50th player in program history to do so
- Riley is wrapping up his career playing some of his best basketball; he has scored at least eight points in ten consecutive games while averaging 12.5 points on the season
- His shooting accuracy is as high as it has been in his UE career at 46.5%; he has improved on that in each season
- Riley led UE with 15 points against Indiana State before scoring eight at UNI; he has at least eight tallies in 10 straight games
Another Scoring Mark
- The recent roll for Jawaun Newton continued with him setting his career scoring high with 13 points on Wednesday evening at UNI
- Newton was 6-for-10 from the field while hauling in five rebounds
- He has chipped in at least six points in nine out of the last ten games; over that time, he is shooting 64.3% hitting 36 out of 56 attempts while going 10-for-15 from long range
- Newton has shot 50% or better from the field in 10 consecutive contests
- Through his first 17 games of the season, Newton scored six points just three times
- Over his first 48 college contests, Newton did not reach double figures in points, but has done so in five of his last nine games
Scouting the Opponent
- Illinois State enters Saturday's regular season finale with a 9-20 record and are 4-13 in the Valley; ISU is locked into the #9 seed for next week's Arch Madness
- They are 1-4 over their last five games, but defeated Drake last weekend by a 57-53 final and took Bradley to overtime on Wednesday in their final home game
- Zach Copeland averages a team-best 14.8 points per game while also pacing ISU with 77 assists and 31 steals
- Keith Fisher III has a team-high 5.9 rebounds per game
- Jaycee Hillsman is third on the team with 8.3 points and second with 4.2 rebounds
- Hillsman scored 20 points in the first meeting between the schools this year, hitting four out of five 3-point tries
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