Valparaiso (1-10, 0-2 MVC)
Game #12 - January 6, 2024 - 4 p.m.
at Southern Illinois (5-7, 0-2 MVC)
Banterra Center (9,000) - Carbondale, Ill.
Next Up in Valpo Basketball: The Valpo women’s basketball team concludes a stretch of five consecutive road games Saturday afternoon when the Beacons take on Southern Illinois. Following Saturday’s contest, Valpo will play four straight games at home in the ARC.
Previously: A slow start to the game doomed Valpo on Thursday night, as despite playing the last three quarters against host Missouri State nearly even, the Beacons fell to the Lady Bears by a 67-47 final. Olivia Brown scored a game-high 15 points, while Leah Earnest notched 10 points and nine rebounds, in the process surpassing the 500-rebound milestone for her career.
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 2023-24 and owns a record of 56-101. Evans has made an impact on the program in her first five 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 brief series between SIU and Valpo, as the two programs did not meet prior to Valpo joining the MVC in 2017-18. SIU won the first five meetings, followed by Valpo winning four of the next five matchups. Most recently, the Salukis improved their record in the series to 7-4 as they won last season’s lone meeting in Carbondale, 77-47. Valpo trailed by just nine entering the fourth quarter of that game before SIU pulled away in the final period. Leah Earnest paced the Beacons with 13 points and eight rebounds.
@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 Missouri State
- The Beacons hit just one field goal in the first quarter as the Lady Bears led 20-5 10 minutes into the game.
- Missouri State extended its lead to as many as 20 points in the second quarter, but the Beacons held the Lady Bears to just three points over the final five minutes of the period to close the deficit to 30-14 at intermission.
- Valpo cut the MSU lead to 12 points multiple times in the third quarter, but the Lady Bears extended back out to a 49-31 edge at the end of the period.
- Olivia Brown hit back-to-back 3-pointers early in the fourth quarter, followed two possessions later by a Leah Earnest basket, to force an MSU timeout with 6:52 to play and Valpo within 52-41.
- The Beacons were unable to keep the momentum after the stoppage, however, going over four minutes in between field goals as MSU went on a 10-2 run to put the game away.
- Brown knocked down a trio of 3-pointers, going 3-of-5 from behind the arc, on her way to a game-high 15 points.
- Earnest scored in double figures for the 10th time in the season’s first 11 games, finishing with 10 points. The senior also led all players with nine rebounds and handed out a team-high three assists.
- Raeven Raye-Redmond ensured she would remain among the conference’s leaders in steals as she racked up five takeaways, her second-best single-game effort of the year.
- It was a tale of two halves shooting the ball for the Beacons. Valpo hit just 5-of-20 from the field in the first half and was 0-of-6 from deep. In the final 20 minutes, the Beacons hit 12-of-24 from the floor and were 5-of-12 from 3-point range.
- Valpo committed 21 turnovers while forcing 16 Missouri State miscues, but the Lady Bears held a significant 22-8 edge in points off turnovers.
...at Murray State
- Valpo was within 18-16 past the halfway point of the first quarter before Murray State ended the period with 11 straight points to pull out to a 29-16 lead at the end of the quarter.
- The Beacons used a 12-3 run to close to within 35-28 with 4:44 to play in the first half. The Racers scored the next nine in a row, however, and led 44-31 at intermission.
- A 13-0 Murray State run over a four-minute stretch of the third quarter pushed the Racers’ advantage to 28 points. Murray State led 76-49 with 10 minutes to play, and Valpo was unable to get any closer in the fourth quarter.
- Leah Earnest led all players with a game-high 17 points, the ninth time in 10 games this season that the senior has scored in double figures. She also came up just one rebound shy of a double-double, pacing all players with nine boards.
- Saniya Jackson tallied 11 points on 5-of-9 shooting to reach double figures for the fifth time in Valpo’s last seven games, while Nevaeh Jackson totaled 10 points to hit double digits for the second time this year. Both of the twins contributed three steals and two blocked shots as well.
- Valpo shot at a 40.7% (22-of-54) clip from the floor to Murray State’s 46% (29-of-63) shooting. The Racers also hit 11 triples versus the Beacons’ eight 3-pointers.
- The Beacons committed a season-worst 28 turnovers which Murray State converted into 35 points.
- Led by the Jackson twins, Valpo racked up 11 steals to maintain its MVC-leading pace as a team in that category. It is the sixth time this year the Beacons have posted a double-digit steal total.
...looking ahead
- Valpo finally returns to the ARC for the first time in over a month Friday, Jan. 12 as the Beacons face Drake, followed by a matchup against UNI two days later.
- The four-game homestand continues the next weekend against Illinois State (Jan. 19) and Bradley (Jan. 21).
...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 0-9 away from home so far this year and posted a 4-10 record in true road games last season.
@SIU_WBasketball
- Southern Illinois enters Saturday afternoon’s game at 5-7 overall on the season.
- The Salukis have dropped their last three games, including their first two in Valley play - most recently a 66-59 loss on Thursday night to UIC.
- Laniah Randle paces the Salukis, averaging 17.0 points and 8.9 rebounds per game.
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 Saturday’s game ranked eighth in the conference in scoring (14.1 points/game), eighth in field goal percentage (.500) and 10th in rebounding (6.8 rebounds/game).
- She is also averaging a career-best 2.7 assists/game as well.
- Earnest has been consistent, scoring in double figures in 10 of 11 games to date - including 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.
- With her seventh rebound Thursday at Missouri State, Earnest hit the 500-rebound mark for her career, becoming the 19th player in program history with 500 career boards. She ended the night ranked 18th in program history with 502 career rebounds.
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.
- After scoring a game-high 15 points last time out at Missouri State, Brown enters Saturday’s game with 1,044 collegiate points, 678 of which have come in her three seasons in the Valpo uniform.
- Brown’s .398 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 31st nationally with 11.0 steals/game, and per HerHoopStats.com, their steal rate of 12.8% is good for 26th nationally.
- Valpo has been in double figures in steals in six 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.
- Freshman Raeven Raye-Redmond currently leads all MVC players with 2.8 steals/game despite playing just 16.4 minutes/game.
- Raye-Redmond ranks 26th nationally in steals/game, while her steal rate of 8.1% is tops nationally among players playing at least 10 minutes/game - only Notre Dame’s Hannah Hidalgo and Minnesota’s Niamya Holloway even crack 7% in steal rate while playing at least 10 minutes/game.
- 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 Raye-Redmond did so in her collegiate debut in the aforementioned Western Illinois game.
- Jackson and Raye-Redmond are two of just 23 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 7-4 Southern Miss team which defeated then-#19 Ole Miss, as well as Western Illinois (10-2), UAB (10-3) and Bethune-Cookman (9-4) 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 Southern Illinois is the last 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.
