Wednesday, February 8, 2017 7:00 p.m.
Ford Center, Evansville, Ind.

Loyola defeated Evansville 67-61 on Jan. 21 before the largest crowd of the year (3006) at Gentile Arena. The fans showed up to watch Sr. Jean Dolores Schmidt receive induction into the Loyola Hall of Fame, and to see the Ramblers start a three-game conference winning streak. Evansville played the Ramblers close throughout, and took the lead briefly with six minutes left to play, then tied the game with four minutes left. Ultimately, the Ramblers pulled away as Bruno Skokna scored seven of his 13 points in the closing four minutes. The Purple Aces eventually ended their nine-game losing streak last time out with a somewhat shocking 74-66 win over Missouri State.

The Ramblers have lost their last two games, an overtime road loss to Missouri State and a home loss to Southern Illinois. The two losses to fellow middle of the pack teams have put a dent in Loyola’s once-promising chances of getting a three seed for Arch Madness.

In the previous matchup between the two teams, Loyola held the Aces’ leading scorer Jaylon Brown to just six points in the first half and 16 for the game, a good 4 ½ points below his season average. Ryan Taylor, the other big scoring threat was also held below his average. Six-three junior guard Duane Gibson almost single-handedly kept UE in the game with 21 points and nine rebounds on 8-for-12 shooting. Loyola was led by Aundre Jackson with 17 points; Milton Doyle, Ben Richardson, and Skokna also scored in double digits.

The previous Evansville game might have been a win, but the Ramblers didn’t play all that well. It came during a spell when Clayton Custer wasn’t feeling well, a seven-game span where the 6’1” sophomore guard scored only 38 points and was held to two points or less in three of those games. Donte Ingram was held to less than half his season average and got off only four field goal attempts. And the closeness of the game throughout (or perhaps illness?) kept both Cameron Satterwhite and Vlatko Granic out of the game entirely, as Loyola only checked in 8 players. Loyola is likely to have more players available to play at 100% in the rematch.

As the Ramblers are playing in southern Indiana on Wednesday night, Loyola fans will want to keep an eye on the score in Cedar Falls between UNI and SIU. The winner of the game between those two teams takes a step forward as the front runner for the three seed at Arch Madness. If Loyola fans are confident in beating SIU in Carbondale, they may want to hope it’s SIU coming out a winner. If not, they might be rooting for the Panthers, since Loyola will likely have an RPI tiebreaker over UNI.

Loyola game notes: http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/loy ... 207aaa.pdf

Evansville game notes: Pending

TV/Streaming video: http://www.espn.com/watchespn/index/_/i ... evansville

Vegas odds: Ramblers by 1.5

Thanks, JCt for taking the time to do this. The Calculator Lady now reads these reports in preparation for the game which we will watch on the computer.

JCT do you know anything about the MSU game and what happened that helped Evansville get the W?

Evansville was led by Jaylon Brown's 25 points. Brown shot the lights out (9 for 12 from the field, 7 of 8 from the line) for his second consecutive 25-point game, and the 8th time this season where he's scored 25 or more. But it wasn't just the Jalon Brown show-- 6'8" senior forward David Howard added a career high 17 points on 7 of 10 shooting in 32 minutes on the court. Howard has come on lately, scoring in double figures in three of the last four games and playing more than 30 minutes in each of the past two games. Howard had only 2 points against Loyola, but has averaged 12.5 points per game since then.

Also, Evansville's defense and pacing held MSU's Alize Johnson, who averages a double-double, to a rare "single-single."

Evansville's hopes of a dominant season definitely went the way of the dodo after barely losing Arch Madness last year. Major struggle for them, big opportunity for Loyola to regain a lock on third in the conference.

Evansville was always thought to be in the bottom tier this year, after losing Mockevicius, Balentine, and Brojza. When they won 8 in a row against below-average competition (almost all at home) and started using a smothering defense, some people thought they might have a chance for the middle of the pack. What's happened is their defense has kept them from getting blown out of games, but they can't seem to finish off their opponents. The biggest missing ingredient seems to be three point shooting-- they're 345th out of 347 teams in three pointers made.

Just an FYI for anyone planning to go to the game-- here in central Illinois we've got 2-3 inches of snow in the past two hours, and it's blowing straight east toward Indiana. Hope the team doesn't get trapped in southern Indiana, because it's supposed to be worse to the south.

hate to say it but glad the snow missed us.....im on my way to see the new grandson. who my daughter wanted to name after me and I said no...I would prefer Leslie LaRue Chrisman Alfredrick Nate ....considered it but went with Max.....have we had any Max's on the Ramblers?

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Cigarboy sucks!

According to the media guide, Loyola has never had a player named Max. But the media guide also says one of Porter's sons is named Max. Coincidence?