Sunday, February 7, 2021 1:00 p.m.
Gentile Arena, Chicago, Ill.


Behind a double-double from Cameron Krutwig, Loyola powered their way past a determined Evansville squad on Saturday, 68-55. After holding Missouri State to zero threes on 12 attempts in their previous game, the Ramblers gave up a season-high 11 threes to the Purple Aces and allowed the third-highest shooting percentage by opponents on the season (45.8%).

On the positive side of the ledger, though, Loyola won their 9th straight game and moved up to #12 on KenPom. Evansville played so well on Saturday (against their highest-rated opponent on the year) that the Aces moved up from #242 on KenPom to #227-- even in a game they lost by 13 points. The Ramblers' 9-game winning streak is the longest regular-season winning streak by a Loyola team since 1985's 14-game streak to end the regular season.

The Aces will again start two forwards and three guards. In Saturday's game, Purple Aces Coach Todd Lickliter changed up his starting frontcourt lineup to try to mitigate Loyola's advantage with Krutwig. Six-nine juco junior Iyen Enaruna joined 6'7" grad transfer Jax Levitch in the starting lineup. Levitch played at IPFW and UNC Ashville before earning a starting spot this season in the Evansville frontcourt. Levitch averages only 5.6 points per game, but leads the team in rebounds and hits 51.9% of his rare three pointers. He's more of a facilitator on offense, but does a lot of inside work on defense. Enaruna played 18 minutes and added seven points, four rebounds, two assists and a block before fouling out. Evan Kuhlman will be coming in off the bench to bolster the frontcourt-- he averages 8.4 points, leads the team in blocks, and can still step out to the perimeter for a three (he shoots 35.1% behind the arc).

The UE starting backcourt is 5'10" junior point guard Shamar Givance, 6'3" junior guard Jawaun Newton, and 6'4" senior sharp-shooter Noah Frederking. Newton leads the team with 12.5 points per game, and also picks up 3.9 rebounds per game. Frederking shoots the three at nearly 40%, and averages 11.4 points per game. Frederking led the Aces with 15 points on Saturday.

Despite being the shortest player on the team, Givance makes up for it with speed and energy. He averages 12.1 points, 4.1 rebounds, 4.0 assists, and 1.5 steals per game. Like fellow Canadian Daniel Sackey, he has the ability to drive to the basket fearlessly and finish, and the Evansville offense likes to create opportunities for Givance and Newton to drive to the hoop.

Top bench players include 6'4" sophomore guard Samari Curtis (a Nebraska transfer who averages 10.1 ppg), and 6'9" freshman forward Trey Hall. That's pretty much it for the bench-- 6'0" sophomore guard Gage Bobe and 6'5" freshman guard Alex Mathews might get double-digit minutes in a beat down. Four of the UE starters (all except Kuhlman) average over 31 minutes per game. Hall played only eight minutes on Saturday, but was 2-for-2 on three pointers and also grabbed a rebound.

According to KenPom.com, Evansville has the slowest pace of any team in Division I-- 356th out of 356. And Evansville ranks 347th in average possession length. A good part of UE's offense is to pass and dribble for 20-25 seconds looking to get a mismatch on a defensive switch, then driving to the hoop and either taking the layup or kicking out for a three. They often go 25 seconds or more in the clock before taking a shot. Evansville leads the MVC in three point attempts and made threes by quite a margin-- the Aces have taken 41 more three point attempts than the next highest team, and 71 more attempts than Loyola (despite Loyola having played two more games).

With a win, the Ramblers might be close to their first AP Top 25 ranking since March 1985. Loyola was receiving votes in the poll when the last Top 25 of 2018 came out, but never actually, officially made it into the ranking. Drake is currently in the AP Top 25, and UNI, SIU, Illinois State, and Bradley have all made appearances in the Top 25 since the last time Loyola was ranked. Indiana State was ranked #1 in the last poll of 1979-- Evansville, Missouri State, and Valpo have never been ranked.


Loyola game notes: https://loyolaramblers.com/documents/20 ... _6_21_.pdf

Evansville game notes: https://gopurpleaces.com/documents/2021 ... df?id=9299

TV/Streaming video: NBC Sports Chicago, ESPN+ https://www.espn.com/watch/player?id=1c ... 32ddb18bdd

Internet audio feed: https://loyolaramblers.com/watch/?Live=55&type=Live

Live stats: http://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=325929

Vegas odds: Loyola by 19

It’s tough not to respect the coaching job by Evansville yesterday. Couldn’t have been more obvious that the game plan was to go in, limit the total amount of possessions, slow the game down , and hope to have hot shooting. With Evansville’s talent compared to ours, that’s the perfect plan to give them a chance to win. I was impressed.

With that being said, I think our depth allows us to win by 20 today. I think we will be better from deep and create a bigger gap early that will force them to have to take quicker shots to catch up. The defense will hold.

I’m in the minority on this board, but I love the black jerseys

These black uniforms better not show up again after the regular season.

Agreed Sister, hate these uniforms. Maybe I’m a bit “old man yelling at the kids on the lawn” but we aren’t Oregon Football that needs to have different uniforms. The maroon uni with the Loyola script is one of the best in college basketball, if it isn’t broken don’t try to to fix.

regarding the jerseys: U-G-L-Y, they ain't got no alibi, they ugly

Ugly start again. Evansville is doing a good job on defense with active hands causing turnovers. NEED to protect the ball and value our possessions.

We won yesterday because we didn’t turn over the ball. Certainly not the case through the first 8 minutes

Need to hang some fouls on these guys. They only go 8 deep, and the starters play 32 minutes or more per game.