MVC – OVC Showdowns

(St. Louis, MO) – Ohio Valley/Missouri Valley supremacy is at stake! This week our two focused conferences square off three times. For a kicker, our local team Saint Louis University hosts one team from each league.

Indiana State at Eastern Illinois

Tuesday, Indiana State (3-2) travels to Charleston, Illinois for a game with winless Eastern Illinois (0-4). The Panthers have struggled mightily this season, but were an 18 win team a year ago and made it to the quarter-finals of the College Insider.com Tournament.

Greg Lansing’s Sycamores have played a very representative schedule, and after their game at EIU head they to Indianapolis for a game with Butler. Three ISU players are averaging double figures in scoring (Kristian Smith, Devonte Brown and Brenton Scott) and as a team they are averaging 67.2 ppg.

Off-season losses have hurt the Panthers who average just 60 ppg due to poor shooting. They are being outrebounded by about 15 boards a night and can’t make threes. It has been a disastrous start for Jay Spoonhour’s team. Still, Lantz Arena can be a tough place for visiting teams to perform.

Southeast Missouri at Southern Illinois Carbondale

Another winless West Division team from the OVC tangles with a Valley team with a winning record. Southeast Missouri travels across the Mississippi Wednesday to battle regional rival Southern Illinois.

First year head coach Rick Ray hasn’t found the winning combination yet in Cape Girardeau. SEMO (0-5) has played a difficult schedule and are averaging just 61 ppg. They’ve lost to CIT champion Evansville and two other one loss teams in Dayton and Alabama A&M. Like EIU, they are shooting below .300 from long distance and don’t have the size to offset weak outside shooting.

SIU (6-1) has been the surprise team of the MVC. Picked well down in the pre-season poll, Barry Hinson’s team lost for the first time this weekend in the Corpus Christi Coastal Challenge. They have exploded offensively averaging almost 80 ppg. Senior guard Anthony Beane has been dynamic averaging 20.4 ppg, while shooting over 47% from the field and almost 41% from three. This will be the Salukis’ fifth home game of the young season.

Evansville at Murray State

The marquis match-up of this week’s MVC/OVC showdown is Saturday night at CFSB Center where Murray State entertains Evansville. The Racers (5-2) are still a team in transition after the loss of NBA draftee Cameron Payne, but Matt McMahon’s team was 15-1 at home last season and are perfect in three chances this year.

High level transfer DeMarcus Croaker (Texas) hasn’t had the expected impact yet on the Racer offense (68.6 ppg), but he is tied for second on the team in rebounds (4.7) and second in assists.

Instead it’s been hold over Wayne Langston (13.9 ppg) who leads the team in scoring and in rebounding. Langston and teammate Justin Seymour played for the Reach USA All-Stars this summer and that experience seems to have elevated the 245 pound senior’s game.

Defending CIT champion Evansville (5-1) is off to a great start and is receiving player of the year type play from TWO different players. High scoring wing D. J. Balentine (20 ppg) leads the team in assists (4.8) and fellow senior Egidijus Mockevicius is a raging double-double machine. He’s AVERAGING 17.7 points and 14.2 rebounds.

UE has already defeated Belmont and Southeast Missouri from the OVC and Murray State has two other MVC opponents yet to play this month.

Saint Louis U Hosts Morehead State and Wichita State

SLU (4-1) finally lost their first game of the season on Saturday (to Louisville) and return to St. Louis for six straight home games including this week’s match ups with Morehead State (Wednesday) and Wichita State (Saturday).

Jim Crews’ team has already defeated OVC member Southern Illinois Edwardsville and during this home stand they will entertain Tennessee Martin (OVC) and Valley members Indiana State and Southern Illinois Carbondale.

The balanced Billikens have four players scoring more than 10 points per game and are playing their patented ‘pack the line’ defense, allowing just over 64 points to the opposition. With six games on the Billiken schedule involving OVC and MVC teams, their success will greatly influence how both of these leagues will be viewed.

Do Good