Evansville looks to end streak vs Missouri St.
Missouri State (8-10, 2-3) vs. Evansville (9-9, 0-5)
Ford Center, Evansville, Indiana; Saturday, 2 p.m. EST
BOTTOM LINE: Missouri State looks to extend Evansville's conference losing streak to seven games. Evansville's last MVC win came against the Valparaiso Crusaders 65-63 on March 2, 2019. Missouri State came up short in a 91-78 game at home to Bradley in its last outing.
SAVVY SENIORS: Evansville has relied heavily on its seniors this year. K.J. Riley, Artur Labinowicz, Sam Cunliffe and John Hall have collectively accounted for 55 percent of the team's scoring this year and 59 percent of all Purple Aces points over the last five games.
DEFENSIVE IMPROVEMENTS: The Purple Aces have allowed just 72.2 points per game to conference opponents thus far, an improvement from the 77.8 per game they gave up to non-conference competition.CLUTCH COOK: Keandre Cook has connected on 41.1 percent of the 90 3-pointers he's attempted and has made 8 of 14 over the last three games. He's also made 87.5 percent of his foul shots this season.
SLIPPING AT 73: Missouri State is 0-6 when it allows at least 73 points and 8-4 when it holds opponents to less than 73.
ACCOUNTING FOR ASSISTS: The Bears have recently converted baskets via assists more often than the Purple Aces. Evansville has 19 assists on 51 field goals (37.3 percent) over its previous three contests while Missouri State has assists on 38 of 69 field goals (55.1 percent) during its past three games.
DID YOU KNOW: Evansville gets to the line more often than any other MVC team. The Purple Aces have averaged 21 free throws per game this season, but that number has dropped to 14.6 over their five-game losing streak.
