The Illinois State Redbirds (9-9) will have their chance to beat the Missouri Valley’s best team when they take on the Evansville Aces (15-3) at Redbird Arena. The game starts at 9:00 pm ET on Friday, Jan. 15 and will air on ES2 and ES3.
The Redbirds lost a tough one against Southern Illinois 81-78 on Tuesday. MiKyle McIntosh was the game’s high scorer, finishing with 25 points. The Aces, meanwhile, are coming off an 84-65 win over Drake on Tuesday. Egidijus Mockevicius had a good game, posting 21 points and 12 rebounds to claim his 14th double-double of the season.
The inefficient offense of Illinois State (300th in the nation with an offensive efficiency of 97.1) will square off against the stingy defense of Evansville (27th in the nation with a defensive efficiency of 94.2). The Aces figure to have the advantage on that end of the court.
The Redbirds enter the game with records of 9-9 Straight Up (SU) and 7-9 Against The Spread (ATS).
On the other side, Evansville has a SU record of 15-3 and an ATS record of 7-5-1. Evansville has done particularly well ATS over its past 10 matchups, going 5-2. The Aces are shooting lights out so far, with a .523 field-goal percentage that ranks third in Division I. The Aces are one of the top teams in the country at finding the open man with an average of 20.1 assists per game. The Aces have established a reputation of cleaning up the defensive glass with 28.6 defensive rebounds per game, making them one of the top teams in the nation.
These conference rivals will be facing off in their first head-to-head clash of the season. When they last met the Redbirds were winners, bringing their SU record to 6-4 over Evansville in the most recent games. However, Evansville leads the matchup ATS with a record of 7-3. Illinois State held the edge in field goals, rebounds, and three-pointers three times in the last five games, while Evansville wasn’t able to do so in that span.
Predictions: SU Winner – Evan, ATS Winner – Evan
Notes
Illinois State is 4-2 SU in its last 6 games.
The total has gone UNDER in 4 of Illinois State’s last 5 games at home.
Illinois State is 4-1 SU in its last 5 games when playing Evansville.
The total has gone OVER in 4 of Illinois State’s last 5 games when playing Evansville.
Illinois State is 1-6 ATS in its last 7 games when playing at home against Evansville.
The Evansville Aces have a defensive rating of 94.2 (ranked 27th), while the Illinois State Redbirds have an offensive rating of 97.1 (ranked 300th).
With 68.3 possessions and .971 points per possession, the Illinois State Redbirds perform worse on both metrics than the Evansville Aces. Evansville averages 70.2 possessions and 1.132 points per possession.
Ranked 14th in the nation, Evansville has an average effective field goal percentage of 56.6%. Illinois State has not won a game this season when opponents have a similar or higher effective field goal percentage (0-2).
Ranked third in the nation, Evansville has an average of 20.1 assists per game. Illinois State ranks lower at 277th with 12.0.
Evansville, the 80th-ranked team in blocked shots, registers an average of 4.4 per game. Illinois State does worse, ranked 113th with 4.1.
On average, Illinois State makes 6.3 steals per game. Evansville has a dazzling 9-3 record when it gives up at least 6 steals.
