(St. Louis, MO) – Missouri Valley Conference teams are three for three this postseason. Wednesday Illinois State and Evansville joined Loyola with first round wins in their respective tournaments.
Illinois State was a National Invitation Tournament winner, 69-56 over Green Bay. The Redbirds (22-12) trailed 31-24 at the half and rallied to score 45 in the definitive second half. Four Redbirds reached double figures in scoring, led by Paris Lee’s 18 points.
The sophomore point guard handed out six assists with only one turnover and collected four steals. Head Coach Dan Muller told WJBC, that Lee was really led the team to victory.
Illinois State travels to Old Dominion on Monday.
Evansville reached the 20 win plateau with a 82-77 win over IPFW. The College Insider.com Tournament win was sparked by D.J. Balentine’s 35 points. The Kokomo native hit his first nine shots and said there were some motivating factors in his performance.
D. J. Balentine – gopurpleaces.com
“I have two really good friends on the IPFW team and they’ve been talking trash about how they were going to shut me down, so I had a little extra motivation,” he said.
Center Egidijus Mockevicius collected his 18th double-double in just 21 minutes of play. The big Lithuanian scored 15 points and grabbed ten rebounds.
Next up for Marty Simmons’ Purple Aces is a Monday night date with Jay Spoonhour’s Eastern Illinois Panthers.
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Flooding, lightning strikes, etc. have cost @RacersHoops two home games. Had to play 'neutral site' tonight instead of at home and Wednesday's goes from home to away. Tough break for the Racers, and the whole area has been hit with difficulties. #FatherHarry
Murray State's scheduled home game Wednesday vs. Southern Illinois being moved to Banterra Center in Carbondale. #ValleyHoops
Gigantic game for @BradleyUMBB today in Des Moines. If they have a chance to catch @DrakeBulldogsMB, they have to win today. The Bulldogs can basically win the title today. @BustingBrackets breaks it all down. #FatherHarry https://bit.ly/3EGiVgi
Not rooting for any particular @ValleyHoops, but chaos is always fun. If things break certain ways, after today there could be a six-way tie for fifth place.
Fun to listen to @MLBLarry on the @SIU_Basketball/@BelmontMBB game tonight. Good job brother. #FatherHarry
