Evansville (11-9, 5-5) vs. Southern Illinois (10-11, 4-6)
Roberts Stadium; Evansville, IN
7:05 CST
ESPN Full Court & ESPN3.com
Two pretty evenly matched teams square off today in Evansville. The Purple Aces are tied with Creighton for 5th in the Valley. Southern Illinois is just a game back and in the dreaded 7th place (a Thurday night game in St. Louis). The way the schedule works out, today’s game will be the second time they’ve met with the first coming January 18, 11 days ago, a Saluki win at home.
Pieter Van Tongeren lead the Purple Aces with 18 in their last meeting. While Van Tongeren was scoring down low, the Salukis shut down Colt Ryan. He was held to 6 points on 2-10 shooting, 0-6 from 3-pt range. Can the Salukis keep Colt Ryan down again? Probably not, especially at home. Carlton Fay had 15 last game againts Evansville. Gene Teague played just 11 minutes. Expect him to play more minutes and be a bigger factor. The Salukis last road win was January 4 against Bradley. Since then, they have lost three straight on the road, a place where they only two all season.
Wichita State (17-4, 8-2) vs. Bradley (6-15, 0-10)
Koch Arena; Wichita, KS
1:00 CST; TV: ESPN2
The Shockers were able to take sole possession of second place this last week as they took care of Southern Illinois 74-64. J.T. Durley lead the way with 19 points and the shockers put together a 16-0 run in the second half to seal the deal.
The Braves are a different story. They were able to get sole possession of last place in the Valley as they fell in overtime to their rival Illinois State. The Redbirds were able to knock down two free throws with three seconds remaining in overtime to seal the win. It is going to be a long second half of the season for the Redbirds, starting tonight.
