Valparaiso (5-24, 4-16 MVC)
Hoops in the Heartland - First Round
Game #30 - March 14, 2024 - 6 p.m.
vs. UIC (17-14, 10-10 MVC)
Vibrant Arena at The MARK (12,000) - Moline, Ill.
Next Up in Valpo Basketball: The Valpo women’s basketball team heads to Hoops in the Heartland in Moline, Ill. as the 10th seed for the MVC Tournament. The Beacons will have to win four games in four days to claim the tournament championship, starting on Thursday evening against seventh-seeded UIC.
Previously: Valpo celebrated Senior Day at the ARC Saturday, recognizing Olivia Brown, Jill Harris, Ava Interrante and Emma Tecca in their final home game, but visiting Missouri State proved to be a rude guest, as the Lady Bears defeated the Beacons, 77-66. Leah Earnest paced Valpo with 17 points and five rebounds.
Following Valpo Basketball: Streaming Video: ESPN+ - Brad Wells and Kelly Burke
Radio: WVUR, 95.1 FM, Valparaiso
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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 60-115. 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: Valpo renews acquaintances with the most common opponent in program history on Thursday night, as the Beacons match up with UIC for the 56th time - the Flames hold a 30-25 edge in the series. The MVC marks the fourth different conference the two programs have shared affiliation in, as Valpo and UIC were both previously together in the North Star Conference (1988-92), the Mid-Continent Conference (1992-94) and the Horizon League (2007-17).
This season, the Beacons and Flames split the regular season series - Valpo won a thriller in Chicago in early February, 71-70, on a Leah Earnest layup at the buzzer, while UIC got its revenge at the ARC later in the month, earning an 82-59 win.
Thursday will be the sixth time the two programs have met in conference tournament play across their four conferences:
- 3/7/91 - North Star - Valpo 81, UIC 73
- 3/11/93 - Mid-Con - UIC 101, Valpo 100
- 3/10/94 - Mid-Con - UIC 65, Valpo 62
- 3/11/13 - Horizon - Valpo 67, UIC 57
- 3/9/23 - MVC - UIC 72, Valpo 47
@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.
...versus Missouri State
- The Lady Bears scored the final four points of the opening period to lead 18-13 at the end of the first.
- MSU extended its lead to double figures for the first time just over two minutes into the second quarter.
- Olivia Brown had four points and an assist during a 6-0 run which brought Valpo to within 29-25 with three minutes to play in the half.
- Just over a minute later, Saniya Jackson hit a 3-pointer to make it 33-30, but the Lady Bears scored four of the final five points of the half to lead 37-31 at intermission.
- MSU scored seven points in a three-possession stretch of the third quarter to push its lead to its apex, 48-33, with 5:44 to play in the third quarter.
- Valpo responded with a 14-3 run over the next four minutes. Five different Beacons scored during the run, and when Emma Tecca hit a 3-pointer from the corner with 1:48 to play in the period, the Beacons were within 51-47.
- Missouri State got to the foul line on each of its next three possessions and hit all six free throws before a 3-point play by Leah Earnest made it a 57-50 game at the end of the third quarter.
- Neveah Jackson hit a 3-pointer on Valpo’s second possession of the fourth quarter to cut the deficit to four points.
- That was the Beacons’ last field goal for over four minutes, however, as MSU went on an 11-3 run to extend its advantage back to double digits. Valpo got no closer than seven points the rest of the way.
- Earnest led the Beacons with 17 points and five rebounds.
- Coming off the bench for the first time since early in the season, Nevaeh Jackson didn’t let that slow her down, as she went 4-of-6 from the floor and knocked down all three of her 3-point attempts in a 15-point effort.
- Led by Jackson’s trio of triples, the Beacons were 7-of-17 from downtown — their 41.2% clip from deep the sixth time this season they have hit at least 40% of their 3-point attempts.
...versus Southern Illinois
- The Salukis led 14-12 at the end of the opening quarter.
- SIU used a 7-0 run midway through the second quarter to extend its lead to double digits and got its advantage to 10 points on three occasions in the period, eventually taking a 31-23 lead into halftime.
- Valpo held SIU to just two points over the first four-plus minutes of the third quarter, enabling the Beacons to close to within 33-31 on a putback by Nevaeh Jackson.
- The Beacons got as close as one point twice in the third period, and by the end of the period, had possessed the ball seven times with a chance to tie or take the lead. They were never able to even the score, however, and SIU pushed its lead back out to 42-37 at the end of the third quarter.
- After giving up the first two points of the fourth quarter, Valpo scored eight of the next 10 points to close to within 46-45 with 6:02 to play.
- In a span of 30 seconds, SIU secured an offensive rebound, got a second-chance basket and came up with a steal which led to a fast-break bucket, quickly making it a 50-45 game with five minutes to play.
- Valpo never again possessed the ball with a chance to tie or take the lead.
- Leah Earnest led all players with 25 points on Thursday, going 9-of-16 from the field and a perfect 7-of-7 from the foul line, and also tied for team-high honors with seven rebounds.
- Earnest was the lone Beacon to score in double figures, however, as Valpo’s next-highest scorer tallied seven points.
- The Beacons finished 2-of-20 from 3-point range, their worst shooting percentage from deep in MVC play this year. They did hit 11-of-12 as a team from the foul line, the sixth time in the last eight games they have hit at least 80% accuracy from the charity stripe.
...away from home
- Thursday marks Valpo’s 18th game away from home this year and the Beacons’ second neutral-site game.
- Valpo is 3-14 away from the ARC this season, including a 61-35 loss to Bethune-Cookman in its lone neutral-site contest.
@UIC_WBB
- UIC enters Hoops in the Heartland with a 17-14 overall record.
- The Flames concluded the Valley slate at 10-10 following Saturday’s 69-65 overtime loss to Southern Illinois.
- Despite coming off the bench, Makiyah Williams leads UIC, averaging 12.7 points/game. Keimari Rimmer adds 10.9 points and a team-high 6.5 rebounds per game.
A Look Back at the UIC Games
...71-70 win at UIC, Feb. 4
- UIC led 18-16 at the end of the first quarter and 32-24 at halftime. The Flames’ lead reached as many as nine points in the third quarter before Valpo closed to within 49-47 with 10 minutes to play.
- UIC pushed its lead to 56-50 with 6:58 to play, but the Beacons put together a 14-2 run over the next 3:48 to flip the script and take a 64-58 lead with 3:10 remaining.
- The Flames scored five points on their next two possessions to make it a one-possession game, and after the teams traded baskets, a Sara Zabrecky 3-pointer put UIC ahead 68-66 with 24 seconds left.
- After a Valpo miss, UIC split a pair of free throws to make it a 3-point game, setting up Nevaeh Jackson to hit a game-tying 3-pointer with 5.0 seconds to play.
- The Beacons were called for a foul with 4.1 seconds left on the ensuing inbounds - the Flames hit the first free throw to take the lead, but missed the second. Valpo secured the rebound and called timeout, but not before the clock had wound down to 1.5 seconds.
- Jackson triggered the inbounds in the frontcourt and hit Earnest on the near side, 15 feet from the basket. Jackson’s pass eluded Earnest’s defender’s lunging stab at a steal, and with the back side cleared out, Earnest turned, took one dribble and had an uncontested layup at the rim for the buzzer-beater.
- Earnest’s buzzer-beater for the win was Valpo’s first since Meredith Hamlet connected on a layup at the buzzer for a win at Chicago State Nov. 16, 2016.
- The basket capped a 20-point night for the senior. Earnest also paced Valpo with seven rebounds and a career-high tying six assists as well.
- Jackson was responsible for nearly half of Valpo’s season-best 14 3-pointers, as the rookie went 6-for-9 from behind the 3-point line — coming up one point shy of her career best with 18 points. Olivia Brown hit all four of her 3-point attempts as well.
...82-59 loss at Valpo, Feb. 25
- UIC scored 15 of the game’s first 17 points, jumping out to a 15-2 lead 5:08 into the game, and the Flames held a 21-12 lead at the end of the opening quarter.
- It was still a single-digit deficit at the midway point of the quarter when Leah Earnest scored her 1,000th career point, but the Flames scored nine of the final 13 points of the half to lead 41-27 at intermission.
- Earnest connected on a 3-pointer right out of the locker room to make it an 11-point game, but that proved to be as close as the game would be in the second half. UIC led 63-41 at the end of the third quarter on its way to the win.
- Earnest finished with a team-high 16 points on 7-of-12 shooting, while Jill Harris came up one point shy of her career high, scoring 13 points on 4-of-5 shooting.
- Valpo shot just 37.9% for the game, while UIC hit at a 55.8% clip. The Flames were 20-of-30 at the foul line to the Beacons’ 10-of-20 mark.
- The Flames outrebounded Valpo 44-26 and held a 50-34 advantage in points in the paint.
Valpo in the Postseason
- Discounting the canceled 2020 MVC Tournament, Valpo has won a conference tournament game five of the last seven years and in eight of the last 11 seasons.
- Last season was the first time Valpo has lost when playing on Thursday at Hoops in the Heartland, as the previous three times, they had come away victorious - beating Evansville in 2021, Indiana State in 2019 and Loyola in 2018.
- This year marks the first time since 2019 that Valpo’s first game at Hoops in the Heartland won’t be the final game of the day.
Reaching Milestones
- Senior Leah Earnest hit a pair of milestones late last month.
- With her third rebound against Belmont, Earnest hit 600 rebounds for her career, becoming just the 12th player in program history to hit that mark.
- Earnest currently owns 633 career rebounds, nine shy of 11th place in program history.
- Meanwhile, with her eighth point in the home game against UIC, Earnest reached the 1,000-point milestone for her career, becoming the 18th member of Valpo’s 1,000-point club.
- Earnest has scored 1,076 career points, 17th-most in program history - she is one point shy of 16th all-time at Valpo, five from 15th and 20 from 14th.
- Earnest is just the 10th Valpo player all-time with both 1,000 career points and 600 career rebounds - of the seven players currently eligible, five of them are members of the Valpo Athletics Hall of Fame.
- Earnest also ranks ninth in program history in career field goal percentage.
Knocking Down Triples
- Valpo enjoyed a big advantage from the 3-point line at UNI Feb. 29, going 11-of-28 from deep as compared to the Panthers’ 2-of-14 clip.
- It was the second time this year the Beacons have connected on nine more 3-pointers than their opponent, as they did so as well in the win at UIC.
- While the advantage wasn’t nearly as pronounced March 2 at Drake, it wasn’t because the offense lacked, as the Beacons went 11-of-20 from 3-point range against the Bulldogs.
- The .550 clip from deep was the program’s best percentage from downtown since hitting 10-of-18 (.556) last February at Evansville.
- Valpo has hit 10 or more 3-pointers seven times this season, highlighted by a season-best 14 in the aforementioned UIC game.
- The Beacons closed the regular season by going 7-of-17 (.412) from deep against Missouri State, the sixth time this season they’ve hit at least 40% from 3-point range.
- The Beacons have tallied 221 total triples this year, seventh-most in a single season in program history. They are just five 3-pointers away from the fourth-highest single-season total in Valpo history.
Taking Advantage of Charity
- Valpo continued its strong recent efforts at the free throw line in the final weekend of the regular season, going 11-of-12 at the stripe against Southern Illinois and 19-of-23 versus Missouri State.
- The Beacons closed the regular season by hitting 80% or better from the foul line in seven of the final nine games.
- Through the season’s first 12 games, Valpo was shooting just 61.8% at the foul line, but over the last 17 games, the team is hitting at a 77.7% clip.
- Free throws haven’t been nearly as charitable on the other end of the court, however. Valpo’s opponents in MVC play hit at a 78.6% clip from the stripe - the highest opponent free throw percentage in the Valley. Additionally, Valpo’s opponents hit 367 total free throws in conference play, 133 more than the Beacons made.
Another Leap Forward
- Senior Leah Earnest has taken a stellar step forward this season.
- Earnest enters Hoops in the Heartland ranked fifth in the conference in scoring (16.2) and 10th in rebounding (7.1), while also averaging a team-best 2.7 assists/game as well.
- With her 17-point performance in the regular season finale, Earnest leaped three spots on Valpo’s single-season scoring chart, as she now ranks seventh in a single season in program history with 471 points. She is only 10 points out of sixth and 14 out of fifth.
- Her per-game clip of 16.2 points/game would rank eighth in a single season in program history.
- Earnest is on pace to become the first Valpo player since Debbie Bolen in 1991-92 to lead the team in points, rebounds and assists.
- Earnest has been consistent, scoring in double figures in 27 of 29 games this season.
- Earnest entered this season with a career high of 20 in the scoring column, but has hit that mark or better eight times this year, including a career-best 32 points at Illinois State to go with 13 rebounds.
- The 32 points are tied for the most by a Valpo player in the last seven seasons. Earnest came up just one point shy of cracking the program’s single-game top-10 chart.
- She is the first Valpo player with a 30-point double-double since Tabitha Gerardot went for 33 and 18 versus Wright State Feb. 28, 2013.
- The performance at Illinois State was just the latest of Earnest’s impressive stat lines this year. She posted 24 points, 14 rebounds and six assists in Valpo’s home win over Bradley - the first player in Valpo history to reach those marks in the same game, and one of just four D-I players this year (a group which includes Iowa’s Caitlin Clark [2x] and LSU’s Angel Reese) to hit those marks.
- Earnest tallied 20 points, seven rebounds and six assists in the Beacons’ win at UIC. Only three times this year has an MVC player hit those marks in the same game, and Earnest’s efforts against Bradley and at UIC account of two of those instances.
Jackson Jackson
- The twins from Fort Wayne have been a big part of the Beacon squad this season.
- Saniya Jackson ranks third on the team with 9.3 points/game, a mark she bumped up to 10.1 points/game - second-best on the team - in Valley play.
- Jackson has scored in double figures 15 times this year. She also leads the team and ranks among the top-10 in the Valley with 50 steals, and ranks second on the team in rebounding and blocked shots as well.
- Meanwhile, Nevaeh Jackson is fourth on the team in scoring with 7.2 points/game, reaching double digits on eight occasions. Her scoring average increased to 8.6 points/game in MVC play.
- She also ranks second on the team in assists and blocked shots, as well as third in rebounding.
Youth in the Lineup
- The Beacons’ starting lineup featured three freshmen for the vast majority of the MVC slate.
- Layla Gold made her first collegiate start at Southern Illinois in Valpo’s second Valley game of the season, joining Saniya Jackson and Nevaeh Jackson in the starting five.
- It was the first time Valpo has started three freshmen since March 11, 2016, when Hannah Schaub, Meredith Hamlet and Amber Lindfors were in the starting lineup against Northern Kentucky.
- Gold’s insertion into the lineup was necessitated after Olivia Brown suffered an injury in the fourth quarter of the previous game at Missouri State which kept her out against the Salukis. It was the first game Brown had missed in her three years at Valpo, snapping a streak of 71 consecutive games played.
- Valpo maintained the same starting five from that SIU game until the regular season finale, when the Beacons started all three of their active seniors.
Thievery Abounds
- Valpo averages 9.3 steals/game and has been in double figures in steals in 13 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.
- Two Beacons have had an eight-steal game this season - freshman Saniya Jackson did so Nov. 25 at UAB and fellow rookie Raeven Raye-Redmond did so in her collegiate debut in the aforementioned Western Illinois game.
- 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.
