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Wednesday, March 18
Evansville, Ind.
8 p.m.
Purdue Fort Wayne
at
Evansville
Photo by: Inertia Sports Media
Mastodons Open CIT Play at Evansville Wednesday Evening
3/17/2015 1:04:00 PM | Men's Basketball
EVANSVILLE, Ind. - The IPFW men's basketball team opens play in the 2015 CollegeInsider.com Postseason Basketball Tournament on Wednesday evening when the team faces off against the Evansville Aces in an 8 p.m. tip-off at the Ford Center.
GAMEDAY INFORMATION
Who: Evansville Aces (19-12)
Where: Evansville, Ind. | Ford Center
Listen: ESPN Radio 1380 AM | Brett Rump, play-by-play
Watch: WatchCollegeInsider.com
Live Stats: ,GoPurpleAces.com
QUICK HITTERS
• This is IPFW's second consecutive berth into the CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament, as last season the Mastodons beat Akron at the Gates Sports Center, before falling on the road at VMI in the second round of the tournament.
• Steve Forbes was named to the All-League First Team, Joe Edwards to the Honorable Mention squad, and Max Landis to the All-Newcomer team
• Against South Dakota in the Summit League Tournament, IPFW senior Joe Edwards scored his 1,000th career point.
• After a 10-game span without a 10-0 run or better, IPFW has picked up five such runs in the last five games, including a 10-0 run in the second half against South Dakota.
• IPFW is the only team in the Summit League to have six players score at least 20 points in a game this season, and has the second-most 20+ point scorers in the country.
• IPFW had its longest win streak since 1992-93 (seven games) snapped on Saturday at North Dakota State
• IPFW head coach Jon Coffman has 16 wins this season, the most first-year victories in program history, just passing three other coaches (Gordon Stauffer, Andy Piazza, and Tim Russell).
• This is IPFW's first-ever meeting with Evansville, and after the game, the Mastodons will have faced eight of the nine other NCAA Division I schools in the state of Indiana. The only remaining team that IPFW has not faced is Indiana University.
SCOUTING THE ACES
Evansville comes into the game looking to snap a four-game losing skid with losses against Nationally Ranked Wichita State and UNI, and back-to-back losses to Missouri Valley Conference Tournament runner-up Illinois State.
In their game against Illinois State, the Aces led 37-31 at halftime, and led by as many as nine in the game; however, the RedBirds out-scored Evansville by 10 in the second half to secure the four-point victory. D.J. Balentine led the way with a game-high-tying 17 points, as Egidiju Mockevicius scored 14 with seven rebounds. Mislav Brzoja added 11 points in the losing effort. Balentine, Brzoja and Duane Gibson each dished out four assists.
For the season, Balentine leads the team with a 18.9 point per game average, while also dishing out a team-best 98 assists and making 56 three-point field goals (36.4 percent). Mockevicius averages 12.1 points while leading the team with 9.8 rebounds per game and 65 blocked shots, as the pair earned First Team All-Missouri Valley Conference honors. Three others - Brzoja (8.2), Blake Simmons (7.2) and Adam Wing (7.2) - average over seven points per game.
As a team, the Aces out-rebound their opponents by just over a half rebound per game, while dishing out over 100 more assists for the season. Gibson leads the team with 26 steals.
~ Feel the Rumble ~
GAMEDAY INFORMATION
Who: Evansville Aces (19-12)
Where: Evansville, Ind. | Ford Center
Listen: ESPN Radio 1380 AM | Brett Rump, play-by-play
Watch: WatchCollegeInsider.com
Live Stats: ,GoPurpleAces.com
QUICK HITTERS
• This is IPFW's second consecutive berth into the CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament, as last season the Mastodons beat Akron at the Gates Sports Center, before falling on the road at VMI in the second round of the tournament.
• Steve Forbes was named to the All-League First Team, Joe Edwards to the Honorable Mention squad, and Max Landis to the All-Newcomer team
• Against South Dakota in the Summit League Tournament, IPFW senior Joe Edwards scored his 1,000th career point.
• After a 10-game span without a 10-0 run or better, IPFW has picked up five such runs in the last five games, including a 10-0 run in the second half against South Dakota.
• IPFW is the only team in the Summit League to have six players score at least 20 points in a game this season, and has the second-most 20+ point scorers in the country.
• IPFW had its longest win streak since 1992-93 (seven games) snapped on Saturday at North Dakota State
• IPFW head coach Jon Coffman has 16 wins this season, the most first-year victories in program history, just passing three other coaches (Gordon Stauffer, Andy Piazza, and Tim Russell).
• This is IPFW's first-ever meeting with Evansville, and after the game, the Mastodons will have faced eight of the nine other NCAA Division I schools in the state of Indiana. The only remaining team that IPFW has not faced is Indiana University.
SCOUTING THE ACES
Evansville comes into the game looking to snap a four-game losing skid with losses against Nationally Ranked Wichita State and UNI, and back-to-back losses to Missouri Valley Conference Tournament runner-up Illinois State.
In their game against Illinois State, the Aces led 37-31 at halftime, and led by as many as nine in the game; however, the RedBirds out-scored Evansville by 10 in the second half to secure the four-point victory. D.J. Balentine led the way with a game-high-tying 17 points, as Egidiju Mockevicius scored 14 with seven rebounds. Mislav Brzoja added 11 points in the losing effort. Balentine, Brzoja and Duane Gibson each dished out four assists.
For the season, Balentine leads the team with a 18.9 point per game average, while also dishing out a team-best 98 assists and making 56 three-point field goals (36.4 percent). Mockevicius averages 12.1 points while leading the team with 9.8 rebounds per game and 65 blocked shots, as the pair earned First Team All-Missouri Valley Conference honors. Three others - Brzoja (8.2), Blake Simmons (7.2) and Adam Wing (7.2) - average over seven points per game.
As a team, the Aces out-rebound their opponents by just over a half rebound per game, while dishing out over 100 more assists for the season. Gibson leads the team with 26 steals.
~ Feel the Rumble ~
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