CIT Survivors

(Charleston, IL) – A clash of the Ohio Valley and Missouri Valley conferences occurred here tonight courtesy of the College Insider.com Tournament, and Marty Simmons fans weren’t disappointed as the former prep standout was able to win again, this time as the coach of the Evansville Purple Aces. Not far from his home town, Simmons’ team moved to the CIT quarterfinals with an 83-68 win over Eastern Illinois.

The home town Panthers couldn’t contain the inside/outside combination of D. J. Balentine and Egidijus Mockevicius. Balentine’s bombs from long distance (he made four 3-pointers) and Mockevicius’ inside strength (he recorded his 19^th double-double) proved too difficult to defend.

Evansville lost four straight games heading into the CIT and have improved their record to 21-12, tieing for the most wins for any Marty Simmons’ coached Evansville team.

Balentine finished with 22 and Mockevicius completed the game with  21 points and 16 rebounds.

Eastern Illinois finishes the season with a record of 18-15. That too, is the most wins for a Panther team coached by Jay Spoonhour, and their win over Oakland in the first round of the CIT, was EIU’s first ever Division 1 postseason victory.

After the game. both Simmons and Balentine told me there is great value in playing in and winning games in the CIT. They believe the games they play now, will benefit them next season.

 

The Aces looked confident Monday night and now they are one of the final eight teams in the College Insider.com Tournament. While the Aces were defeating EIU, Illinois State lost to Old Dominion in the National Invitation Tournament, and Loyola defeated Oral Roberts in the College Basketball Invitational.

MVC teams are now 8 – 2 in postseason play.

Do Good