EVANSVILLE, Ind. – Regular season action comes to a close on Sunday when the University of Evansville men's basketball team travels to Illinois State. Tip is set for 2 p.m. CT with the Purple Aces Radio Network and ESPN+ having the coverage.
Setting the Scene
- Evansville makes the trek to Normal looking for its second MVC win of the year
- With a 1-18 conference record, the Purple Aces are locked into the #12 spot at Arch Madness
- UE has struggled at Redbird Arena, winning just five times in 30 games inside the venue; Evansville is 1-9 in its last 10 trips to Normal with the lone win being a 66-55 decision in 2016
- Last season, the Aces fell by a 94-56 final at Redbird Arena on Jan. 21 but rebounded two days later to defeat the Redbirds by a 56-53 score at the Ford Center
Last Time Out
- Wednesday evening saw UE wrap up its home schedule with an 82-76 loss to UIC
- Senior Marvin Coleman II and Kenny Strawbridge Jr. were honored at the game
- Yacine Toumi reset career highs in scoring (20 pts), field goals (9) and attempts (18)
- Strawbridge completed the night with 18
Finishing With 20
- For the first time in his collegiate career, Yacine Toumi reached the 20-point mark, scoring 20 in the home finale versus UIC
- He also set career marks with nine field goal makes and 18 attempts
- On the glass, Toumi has picked up 8 rebounds in three of the last six games to improve his season mark to 5.9 per game, which is 13th in the Valley
- He has grabbed 5+ boards in 16 of the last 18 to raise his average from 5.1 to 5.9
- His top tally of 11 came in the win over Bellarmine and had nine at UIC
- Toumi has raised his scoring from 9.8 to 10.7 PPG in the last 10 games and is averaging 12.3 PPG in that time (123 pts)
He's #1
- Connecting on four of his seven 3-point tries against UIC, Gage Bobe improved his MVC outside shooting average to 44.3%, which is tops in the league
- Bobe recorded 12 versus the Flames, marking his sixth double figure game of the seasons; five of those have come in the last 11 games
- Hitting 14 of his last 29 attempts from long range, Bobe is shooting 38.5% on the season but is even better in the MVC
- His top career game came at Valpo as he scored 22 points while draining six of his 11 3-point tries and seeing 36:49 of work
Scouting the Opponent
- Illinois State enters the regular season finale with a 10-20 mark while sitting at 5-14 in Valley play
- Last time out, the Redbirds fell at Drake by a score of 82-51, marking their sixth loss in a row
- Darius Burford leads three double figure scorers with 12.8 points per game while pacing the squad with 71 assists
- Seneca Knight is averaging 11.7 points while Kendall Lewis checks in with a mark of 10.6 PPG
- Lewis is the top rebounder for ISU, hauling in 7.1 caroms per game
- Malachi Poindexter is averaging 9.8 PPG but was the leading scorer for ISU with 18 points in the first meeting against UE
