(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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ICYMI: Semifinal # 2 today at #ArchMadness will feature a contrast of styles as # 5 @UIC_MBB faces # 4 @RacersHoops in the 2:30 game.
It's final: @UNImbb 68 @UEAthletics_MBB 59. The Panthers get @Redbird_MBB on Friday night. Campbell finishes with 23 points. Smith with a double-double. AJ Casey was great with 23 & 10. Panthers with 16 assists.
4:05 left: @UNImbb 57 @UEAthletics_MBB 54. Aces' ball. UNI upside? Campbell with 21 points. Down side - Bond 0/6 from deep. UE upside? Casey with 20 & 9. Down Side? 2/11 from deep in the second half. Anybody's game at #ArchMadness
7:25 left: @UNImbb 55 @UEAthletics_MBB 52. Trey Campbell with 21 points for the Panthers and AJ Casey with 18 for the Aces. Tristan Smith is such a game changer. He has 8 pts & 9 rebounds, but that doesn't tell the story. #ArchMadness
