Valparaiso (1-8, 0-0 MVC)
Game #10 - December 30, 2023 - 5 p.m.
at Murray State (7-2, 0-0 MVC)
CFSB Center (8,600) - Murray, Ky.
Next Up in Valpo Basketball: The Valpo women’s basketball team closes out the 2023 calendar year with its Missouri Valley Conference opener Saturday evening, as the Beacons continue a stretch of five consecutive games away from home with a visit to Murray State.
Previously: Valpo wrapped up nonconference action heading into Christmas with a pair of games in DeLand, Fla., dropping a neutral-site matchup to Bethune-Cookman (61-35) before falling to host Stetson (78-62).
Following Valpo Basketball: Streaming Video: ESPN+
Links for live coverage: Available via ValpoAthletics.com
Head Coach Mary Evans: Mary Evans is in her sixth year at the helm of the program in 2022-23 and owns a record of 56-99. Evans has made an impact on the program in her first four years, raising the team’s level of play to be competitive in a strong Missouri Valley Conference. The 2022-23 season saw Evans lead Valpo to the first win in program history over perennial MVC power Missouri State. The Beacons also won three consecutive road games in Valley play, the first time the program accomplished that feat against three different opponents since 2007.
Series Notes: It’s a very brief series between the Beacons and the Racers, as the two programs had never matched up on the hardwood until Murray State joined the Missouri Valley Conference last season. MSU won the first meeting between the two teams on New Year’s Day in Murray, Ky., pulling away in the fourth quarter for a 67-48 win, and then took a 77-64 victory in the second matchup of the season at the ARC. Olivia Brown paced Valpo in scoring in both games, averaging 17.5 points/game over the two matchups.
@ValpoWBB...
...and @ValleyHoops
- Valpo was picked to finish in 10th place in the MVC preseason poll, totaling 162 points, coming in ahead of Evansville and Bradley.
- Valpo is in its seventh season as a member of the Missouri Valley Conference.
- The Valley was ranked 13th in conference NET last season. The MVC ranked 10th in conference NET in 2021-22, seventh in conference NET in 2020-21 and was eighth in conference RPI in 2019-20.
...looking back at last year
- Valpo finished last season with a 7-23 overall record and finished at 5-15 in MVC play, good for 11th in the Valley standings.
- The Beacons earned their first win in program history over perennial MVC power Missouri State.
- Valpo also won three consecutive road games in Valley play, the first time the program accomplished that feat against three different opponents since 2007.
- Ali Saunders was named to the MVC All-Freshman Team.
...at Stetson
- The first quarter was played entirely within a single possession either way, as neither team was able to push its lead past three points, and the score was tied 15-15 after 10 minutes.
- Stetson opened the second quarter on a 10-3 run to take the lead for good and led 33-26 at halftime.
- The Beacons held the Hatters without a point for a stretch of nearly five minutes in the third quarter, closing to within 37-35 with 4:44 to play in the period.
- The deficit was still just four points at 43-39 with 2:23 to go in the third period before Stetson ended the quarter on a 9-0 run to push its lead to its apex at 52-39 with 10 minutes to play.
- Valpo was able to cut the deficit inside eight points twice in the fourth quarter, but both times Stetson came down and hit a 3-pointer on its next possession.
- Olivia Brown paced Valpo, pouring in 14 points — including four 3-pointers.
- Saniya Jackson finished with 10 points and led the Beacons with seven rebounds, bettering her season best in that category for the second straight day.
- Leah Earnest finished with 10 points as well, her eighth double-digit scoring outing in the season’s first nine games. The senior also handed out a game-high five assists.
- Valpo shot just 38.5% from the field compared to Stetson’s 52.9% clip. The Beacons did hit nine 3-pointers to the Hatters’ five, but Valpo was undone in part by 13-of-23 shooting from the charity stripe.
...vs. Bethune-Cookman
- The Wildcats led 15-4 at the end of the first quarter and were up 23-11 at halftime.
- Valpo was within nine points with 7:03 to play in the third quarter, but in a two-minute span between media timeouts, the Wildcats put nine straight points on the board to push their lead to 18.
- Bethune-Cookman led 45-24 at the end of the third quarter, and Valpo was unable to close to any closer than 18 points in the final period.
- The Beacons shot just 22.4% (11-of-49) from the floor, including a 2-of-23 mark from 3-point range.
- Ava Interrante paced Valpo with eight points, hitting four of her five attempts inside the arc.
- The Valpo defense limited Bethune-Cookman to 35.4% shooting (23-of-65), the lowest field goal percentage by a Beacon opponent this year. The Beacons also held the Wildcats to just two triples.
- Bethune-Cookman did grab 18 offensive rebounds, however, which it turned into 24 second-chance points.
...looking ahead
- The Beacons knock out the longest road trip of the Valley schedule next weekend, playing at Missouri State Thursday night, Jan. 4 and at Southern Illinois Saturday evening, Jan. 6.
- Valpo returns to the ARC for the first time in over a month Friday, Jan. 12 as the Beacons face Drake.
...on the road
- Valpo will play 17 games away from home in the 2023-24 regular season, 16 of which will be true road games.
- The Beacons are 0-7 away from home so far this year and posted a 4-10 record in true road games last season.
@RacersWBB
- Murray State opens Valley play with a conference-best 7-2 record in nonconference action, including six wins in a row.
- The Racers are the highest-scoring team in Division I, averaging 94.2 points/game.
- Reigning MVC Player of the Week Katelyn Young leads the Valley and ranks 27th nationally, averaging 20.1 points/game while also pulling down 8.1 rebounds/game.
Opening Valley Play
- Saturday’s game marks the start of Valpo’s seventh Missouri Valley Conference slate.
- For the fifth time in those seven years, Valpo opens Valley play away from home.
- This is the second straight year the Beacons have played at Murray State on opening weekend - last season, it was the second game of the Belmont/Murray State road trip.
- Valpo has opened Valley play with a win just once in the past six years - a 63-56 home win over UNI in 2020-21.
Another Leap Forward
- Senior Leah Earnest took a jump forward in her production last season, and nine games into the 2023-24 campaign, she has taken another leap.
- Earnest enters Valley play ranked eighth in the conference in scoring (14.2 points/game) and fifth in field goal percentage (.522).
- She also leads the Beacons in rebounding with 6.3 boards/game, and is averaging a career-best 2.7 assists/game as well.
- Earnest has been consistent, scoring in double figures in each of the season’s first seven games after opening last season with eight straight double-digit outputs.
- Prior to last year, you’d have to go back to 2009-10 to find the last time a Valpo player opened the year scoring 10+ in the season’s first seven games (Lauren Kenney-8; Betsy Adams-7).
- Earnest entered this season with a career high of 20 in the scoring column, but has outdone that three times this year, including a career-best 26 points at UAB.
- Earnest enters Saturday’s game with 484 career rebounds, 11 shy of cracking Valpo’s all-time top-20 in the category and 16 shy of becoming the 19th player in program history with 500 career boards.
Passing a Milestone
- Fifth-year guard Olivia Brown gave it her all trying to reach the 1,000-point milestone for her collegiate career at home against Chicago State Dec. 9.
- Brown scored a game-high 23 points - one off her career high - but ultimately came up one point short, finishing the game against the Cougars with 999 collegiate points.
- Brown reached the milestone the next time out, connecting on a 3-pointer early in the third quarter Dec. 19 versus Bethune-Cookman which pushed her past the 1,000-point mark.
- Brown enters Valley play with 1,020 collegiate points, 654 of which have come in her three seasons in the Valpo uniform.
- Brown’s .396 career 3-point percentage at Valpo ranks third in program history.
Thievery Abounds
- Valpo has gotten back to its stealing ways on the defensive end this season.
- The Beacons rank 27th nationally with 11.3 steals/game, and per HerHoopStats.com, their steal rate of 13.2% is good for 23rd nationally.
- Valpo has been in double figures in steals in five of its nine games this season, highlighted by an 18-steal effort against Western Illinois Nov. 18.
- The 18 steals was the program’s best single-game mark since tallying 21 steals at Evansville on Jan. 12, 2020, and is tied for the second-highest output in Evans’ tenure as head coach.
- Twice already this year, the Beacons have had a player tally eight steals in a game - Saniya Jackson did so Nov. 25 at UAB and Raeven Raye-Redmond did so in her collegiate debut in the aforementioned Western Illinois game.
- Jackson and Raye-Redmond are two of just 19 D-I players nationally to record eight or more steals in a single game so far this season.
- The duo are now tied for second on Valpo’s single-game steals chart, just one off the program single-game record.
- Prior to this year, the last Valpo player to tally eight steals in a game was Jeanette Gray against Houston in the 2002 WNIT.
- Raye-Redmond was the first MVC player to record eight steals in a game since UNI’s Ellie Herzberg did so against Indiana State on Feb. 19, 2017.
A Challenging Nonconference Schedule
- Valpo’s nonconference schedule was surprisingly strong.
- Six of the eight teams the Beacons have lost to sit at or above .500 on the season.
- Included among that group is a 7-3 Southern Miss team which defeated then-#19 Ole Miss, as well as Western Illinois (9-2), UAB (9-3) and Bethune-Cookman (8-4) with winning percentages of at least .667 as well.
On the Road Again
- Valpo’s game against Chicago State Dec. 9 was its lone regular season home game in a span of 55 days.
- The Beacons are in the middle of a stretch where they play nine out of 10 games away from home.
- Prior to beating the Cougars, Valpo played four consecutive true road games.
- Saturday’s game at Murray State is the third in a stretch of five straight games away from home for the Beacons, incuding each of their first three MVC games.
- Valpo will go 34 days between home games at the ARC (Chicago State Dec. 9-Drake Jan. 12), the program’s longest stretch between home games since the 1999-2000 team went 35 days between home contests.
Prolific in the Paint
- For those in tune with Valpo’s offensive scheme, it probably doesn’t come as a surprise that most of the Beacons’ 2-point field goals come from inside the paint.
- So far this season, however, it has been even more pronounced.
- Through nine games, Valpo has made 123 2-point field goals - 121 of which have been registered as field goals in the paint.
- The only exceptions are a Leah Earnest shot at Eastern Illinois which was input as being shot from the block on the edge of the lane line, and an Ava Interrante runner to beat the shot clock at Purdue.
What a Quick Start
- Hopefully fans were on time to the start of Valpo’s win over Chicago State Dec. 9, because if they were late, they missed out on a bunch of scoring.
- The Beacons were a perfect 7-for-7 from the field on their first seven possessions of the game, scoring 14 points in the first 3:51 of the game.
- It was the quickest Valpo has reached 14 points since doing so in exactly 3:51 at Drake Jan. 31, 2020.
- It was the first time Valpo has scored on each of its first seven possessions of a game since Feb. 26, 2014 at Detroit.
- It was the first time Valpo has hit its first seven field goal attempts since Nov. 30, 2006 at Loyola.
