Sunday, February 14, 2016 3:00 p.m.
Gentile Arena, Chicago, Ill.
The Evansville Purple Aces seemed well on their way to a clear 2nd place finish in the MVC after easily beating Loyola, 74-66, on Jan. 19. The Aces were 6-1 in the league then, 17-3 overall, and their only league loss had come at Wichita State. Moreover, their experienced inside-out combo of D.J. Balentine and Egidijus Mockevicius were firing like two finely-tuned performance pistons. But since playing Loyola, the Aces are just 2-4, with their two lowest-scoring games of the season coming in their last three games.
Senior guard and conference scoring leader D.J. Balentine has scored 2280 points in his career, but it’s been quite a while since he’s had a stretch like his last four games. Balentine has shot just 20-for-65 (.309) from the field and averaged only 16 ppg over his last four games, during which the Aces are 1-3. The last time he went four consecutive games without scoring 20 or more was in March 2013, at the end of his freshman season.
The starters are Balentine and Mockevicius; guards Jaylon Brown and Adam Wing; and forward Blake Simmons. Everyone already knows about D.J. and Mock—the duo that averages 37.0 points and 17.3 rebounds per game, to go with 119 assists and 76 blocks. Brown is a 6’0” junior guard who averages 11.0 ppg and leads the team in steals. Wing averages 8.1 points per game, and shoots for irrationally high percentages—just under 55% from the field overall, over 60% on threes. Simmons chips in 5.3 points. Brown, Wing, Simmons, and Mislav Brzoja off the bench each have over 70 assists and assist to turnover ratios at or approaching 2 to 1.
The bench is led by 6’6” junior guard Brozja, who averages 8.7 points per game, but can go off for the high teens or more on occasion. Also making an impact from the bench are 6’7” junior forward Willie Wiley, and 6’4” junior guard Christian Benzon.
The Aces are 3-3 in conference road games-- dropping two of their last three-- and their one road win in their last three games came in overtime when Balentine hit a fade-away three at the regulation buzzer. In fact, away from Evansville the Aces are a rather pedestrian 7-5 team on the season. The Ramblers have not played very well at home, however, managing an 8-5 record at home (and only 4-5 at home since Dec. 5).
Montel James was held to only five points and one rebound in Loyola’s game at Evansville on Jan. 19, but has led Loyola in scoring in each game since—averaging 17.7 points and 7.3 rebounds in his last six games. Donte Ingram has also shown improvement and more consistency lately, averaging 9.7 points, 4.3 rebounds, and shooting 47.1% from the field in that span. And Devon Turk has averaged 13.0 points in the four games since returning from a hamstring injury, and has connected on 12 of his 14 two-point field goal attempts since. That trio has been very helpful in Loyola’s 4-2 stretch since their loss to Evansville in January.
Loyola game notes:
http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/loy ... 214aaa.pdfEvansville game notes:
http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/loy ... a_evan.pdfTV/Streaming video: ESPNU
Vegas odds: Aces by 4.5
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