Valpo Falls at Evansville on Sunday
The Valparaiso University men’s basketball team dropped Sunday night’s visit to the Ford Center in Evansville, Ind. 79-69 to host Evansville despite four Beacons tallying double figures in the scoring column, led by freshman All Wright (Durango, Mexico / Link Year) with 17 points.
How It Happened
- Wright nailed his first four shots of the game, all mid-range jumpers from around 15 feet.
- Valpo raced out to a 9-2 lead early, but Evansville closed to within 22-18 at the 11:03 mark as Connor Turbull started to get going inside to the tune of 4-of-5 shooting and eight points.
- Evansville went on a 7-0 run to take a 26-24 lead, but an Isaiah Shaw (Phoenix, Ariz. / Davidson Academy [GCU]) 3 helped Valpo regain the advantage, and Valpo led 29-26 at the under-8 media timeout.
- Shaw continued a smooth start for the Beacons, knocking in a mid-range jumper to make it 4-for-4 from the floor and give Valpo a 37-34 lead with 3:27 to go in the half. He reached double figures in his first six minutes of action in the game.
- Sophomore Cooper Schwieger (Overland Park, Kan. / Blue Valley Southwest [Link Year]) hit a 3 with three minutes left in the first half to boost the lead to six, and a steal and score by senior Tyler Schmidt (Valparaiso, Ind. / Victory Christian Academy) helped Valpo go into the break leading 44-40.
- After being limited by foul trouble in the first half, Wright drained a 3 early in the second half to enter double figures for the game and help Valpo own a 49-43 advantage through the first four minutes of the second stanza.
- Valpo went over four minutes without a made field goal, and UE clawed to within one at 51-50 when Roger Powell Jr. took a timeout with 13:25 on the second-half clock. The Aces made it a 9-0 run and took a 54-51 lead with 11:55 on the clock as Turnbull made big plays on both ends of the court during that stretch.
- Valpo continued to battle, but was plagued by cold shooting that kept Evansville in front at 60-57 at 6:53 of the second half. Turnbull remained the biggest factor for the Aces, climbing above 20 points for the contest. At the under-4 media timeout, the Aces held a 68-61 lead, and then eventually won by 10.
Inside the Game
- Wright scored 17 points or more for the fifth time in six games, finishing with 17. He’s 9-for-9 at the free-throw line over the last two games.
- Schwieger scored a dozen or more for the 18th straight game, finishing with 13 points.
- DeAveiro scored 10 points, his first double-figure scoring output in the last 10 games. He tied a career high with seven rebounds and handed out five assists, lifting his career total to 363, surpassing Scott Anselm, Lubos Barton and Jamie Sykes to move into seventh on the program’s career assists list.
- Shaw totaled 14 points, his highest total since 15 on Dec. 5 vs. Drake. Shaw went 5-of-8 from the field against the Aces and drained two of his three 3-point attempts.
- The free-throw line remained a Valpo specialty, as the Beacons went 16-of-17 (94.1 percent) at the stripe.
- After shooting 55.6 percent from the field in the first half (6-of-13 from 3), Valpo cooled to 26.7 percent after halftime (1-of-10 from 3).
- Connor Turbull led Evansville with 27 points on 12-of-15 shooting.
- Evansville had slim edges in the rebounding battle (32-29) and turnover battle (11-10), but it was the shooting numbers that told the tale, as the Aces went 50 percent from the floor for the game.
Up Next
Valpo (11-16, 4-12 MVC) will host Missouri State on Wednesday at 7 p.m. at the Athletics-Recreation Center. For ticket information, visit tickets.valpoathletics.com.
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