Valparaiso (11-10, 7-7 MVC)
Games #22/23 - March 5/6 - 5 p.m./3 p.m.
at Drake (13-10, 11-5 MVC) - Knapp Center (7,152) - Des Moines, Iowa

Next Up in Valpo Basketball: Postseason seeding is on the line this weekend as the Valpo women’s basketball team closes out the regular season with a two-game series at Drake, starting on Friday evening. One win in the two matchups with the Bulldogs, combined with a loss by either Bradley or Loyola or two losses from UNI in the final weekend, would guarantee Valpo a top-six seed at Hoops in the Heartland for a second straight season and a first-round bye.

Previously: Valpo extended its winning streak to four consecutive games with a pair of notable performances in wins at Southern Illinois last weekend. Saturday’s victory saw Valpo set a program record from 3-point range, going 15-for-20 from deep in a 75-64 win, led by a career-high 28 points from Shay Frederick. On Sunday, the Brown and Gold rallied from an 11-point deficit and forced overtime on a Frederick basket with 11.7 seconds to play en route to an eventual 70-63 win in OT.

Following Valpo Basketball: Streaming Video: ESPN3
Radio: WVUR (95.1 FM, Valparaiso) [Friday definite; Saturday if men’s basketball doesn’t advance to Arch Madness semifinals]
Live Stats/Streaming Audio [both games]: Available via ValpoAthletics.com

Head Coach Mary Evans: Mary Evans (36-46) is in her third season as head coach of the Valpo women’s basketball program in 2020-21. Evans led the Valpo program to a remarkable season across the board in 2019-20, one that concluded among the nation’s top turnarounds from the season before. Valpo posted a 17-12 record in Evans’ second season at the helm, the 17 wins the most by a Valpo team since the 2006-07 campaign and the 10th-most in a single season in program history. Valpo improved its record by 10.5 games over the previous season in 2019-20, tied for the sixth-best improvement in Division I.

Series Notes: Drake leads the all-time series with Valpo, 10-0, with eight of those matchups coming since Valpo joined the MVC. The last matchup was easily Valpo’s best chance at claiming its first series win, as it fell by an 83-79 final in last year’s home finale. Grace Hales led four players in double figures in that game. In an oddity, the Bulldogs have scored between 83 and 89 points in all meetings as Valley opponents.

@ValpoWBB...
...and @ValleyHoops
- Valpo has been picked to finish in seventh place in the MVC preseason poll, totaling 176 points.
- Valpo is in its fourth season as a member of the Missouri Valley Conference in 2020-21.
- The Valley was ranked eighth nationally in conference RPI in 2019-20.

...looking back at last year
- Valpo finished the 2019-20 campaign with a 17-12 overall record, a 10.5-game improvement over the previous year ‑ good for sixth-best nationally.
- Valpo jumped 172 spots in the RPI from the previous year, the largest leap for any D-I team in the nation.
- Valpo’s 17 wins marked the most by a Valpo team since 2006-07.
- The Brown and Gold finished in sixth place in the MVC standings with a 9-9 record - the program’s best finish since joining The Valley.
- The .500 record in conference play was the program’s first since 2008-09.
- Valpo closed the regular season strong, going 6-3 in the second half of MVC play.
- Grace Hales earned Honorable Mention All-Conference accolades, while Carie Weinman was named to the MVC All-Defensive Team.
- As a team, Valpo set the program’s single-season record for free throw percentage (.792), while Hales broke the program’s individual single-season record in the category (.890).

...at Southern Illinois - Sunday
- The win extended Valpo’s winning streak to four consecutive games, its longest winning streak within conference play since joining the MVC.
- In fact, the last time Valpo won four straight conference games came to close out the 2006-07 regular season in its final season as a member of the Mid-Con.
- Valpo has now won three straight in the series with SIU, all of which have come in Carbondale, after the Salukis won five in a row to open the all-time series.
After scoring a career-high 28 points on Saturday, Shay Frederick followed up with another 20-point effort on Sunday — her sixth game with at least 20 points this season. She also matched her career high and tied for team-high honors with nine rebounds and dished out a game-high six assists.
- After going 15-for-20 from 3-point range on Saturday, Valpo was just 6-of-23 from deep on Sunday. But the Brown and Gold used 17-of-27 shooting from inside the arc and a 34-22 advantage in points in the paint to earn the win in the series finale.
- Valpo limited SIU to just 35% shooting in Sunday’s contest.
- Valpo overcame a double-figure deficit to win for the fourth time this season.

...at Southern Illinois - Saturday
- 15-for-20 from 3-point range. The line speaks for itself.
- The 75% clip Valpo hit at from deep matches a program record. It previously hit 75% at Western Michigan on Dec. 19, 2012, but that mark was achieved on just 9-of-12 shooting.
- The 75% mark is the best this year by a D-I women’s team attempting at least 20 triples, bettering the 68.2% clip (15-for-22) Maryland hit at against Iowa just four days previously.
- The 15 made triples are tied for fourth-most in a single game in program history. Valpo has now hit 14 or more 3-pointers four times this year, three of which have come in the last six games.
- Shay Frederick set a program record by connecting on six triples without missing from beyond the arc. The previous best was five 3-pointers without a miss, achieved multiple times — most recently by Carie Weinman this year in the win over Western Michigan.
- Frederick led all players with her career-high 28-point effort, besting by one point her output at Wisconsin earlier this season. The junior also dished out a team-high six assists in the win.
- Caitlin Morrison came up one 3-pointer shy of her career best, going 4-for-9 from deep, while four other players combined to go 5-for-5 from behind the arc.
- Incredibly, despite its prolificacy from the 3-point line, Valpo actually attempted fewer triples than SIU on Saturday, as the Salukis went 7-for-24 from downtown. That is the first time this season Valpo has tried fewer 3-pointers than its opponent.
- SIU held a 31-19 advantage on the glass and scored 18 second-chance points, but Valpo forced 21 Saluki turnovers and converted those into 31 points.

...looking ahead
- Hoops in the Heartland starts next week, with Valpo opening tournament action either Thursday or Friday depending on its regular season finish.

...on the road
- Friday and Saturday’s games will be the 11th and 12th road games for Valpo this season.
- Valpo is currently 6-4 on the road this year after winning three road games in five days last week at Loyola and SIU.
- The three wins last week guaranteed Valpo at least a .500 record in true road games for the second consecutive season.
- Valpo went 9-5 in true road games in 2019-20, including a 4-2 mark on the road in nonconference play.
- The nine true road wins marked the most road victories in a single season
since the 2001-02 team won nine true road games - two of which came in postseason play in the WNIT.

@DrakeWBB
- Drake currently sits at 13-10 overall and enters the final weekend of the regular season in second place in the MVC at 11-5.
- The Bulldogs won their last game at UNI, 77-56, after dropping two the previous weekend at Illinois State.
- Newcomer Grace Berg leads the way for Drake, averaging 16.7 points and 4.9 rebounds per game, while Kierra Collier (12.1 ppg) and Maddie Monahan (12.0 ppg) score in double figures as well.

A Look at Potential Tournament Seeding
- With just one weekend of regular season action remaining, the battle for seeding for Hoops in the Heartland is still up in the air.
- Valpo could still finish anywhere from the third through the seventh seed.
- It’s important to note that winning percentage is used, not games back, and with Valpo’s Indiana State series being canceled, the only winning percentage it could tie other teams at would be .500.
- Two wins at Drake would guarantee Valpo the fifth seed or better.
- Two losses at Drake would drop Valpo to the seventh seed and a first-round game on Thursday.
- A split of the Drake series would put Valpo into the top-six if at least one of UNI, Loyola or Bradley also finishes at .500 or worse. Tiebreakers for ties at .500 as follows:
- Valpo-UNI - Split head-to-head; Valpo 7-7 vs. common MVC opponents, UNI 6-8
- Valpo-Loyola - Split head-to-head; Both 7-7 vs. common MVC opponents; Top-down: Valpo split with Drake, Loyola lost both
- Valpo-Bradley - Split head-to-head; Both 7-7 vs. common MVC opponents; Top-down: Valpo split with Illinois State, Bradley lost both

Looking For a Winning Season
- A split of the series at Drake would guarantee Valpo at worst a .500 finish to the year, as it would enter Hoops in the Heartland one game above .500.
- This comes after the program went 17-12 a season ago.
- The program last finished .500 or better in back-to-back seasons in 2005-06 (16-13) and 2006-07 (20-11).

On a Roll
- Valpo enters the final weekend of the regular season having won its last four games.
- It is the team’s longest winning streak since reeling off seven straight victories to close the non-conference slate in November/December 2019.
- Valpo last won four conference games in a row to close out the 2006-07 regular season as a member of the Mid-Continent Conference.
- While over a month elapsed in between the first and second wins, Valpo has also now won four straight true road games.
- Valpo last won four or more road games in a row last season spanning Nov. 27, 2019-Jan. 12, 2020, two of which came in MVC play.
- Valpo last won four consecutive conference road games during the 1999-2000 season, when it captured four in a row from Dec. 2-Jan. 15.

Raining Threes
- It was a shooting performance beyond the 3-point line unlike any in program history in Valpo’s win Saturday at Southern Illinois, as it went 15-for-20 from deep.
- The 75% clip Valpo hit at from deep matches a program record. It previously hit 75% at Western Michigan on Dec. 19, 2012, but that mark was achieved on just 9-of-12 shooting.
- The 75% mark is the best this year by a D-I women’s team attempting at least 20 triples, bettering the 68.2% clip (15-for-22) Maryland hit at against Iowa just four days previous.
- A few other teams in the past decade have matched Valpo’s 15-for-20 mark in a single game, but none have shot better on at least 20 attempts since Tennessee went 16-for-21 from downtown on March 6, 2011.
- The 15 made triples are tied for fourth-most in a single game in program history. Valpo has now hit 14 or more 3-pointers four times this year, three of which have come in the last six games.
- Over Mary Evans’ three-year tenure, Valpo has knocked down 14+ 3-pointers nine times.
- Shay Frederick set a program record by connecting on six triples without missing from beyond the arc. The previous best was five 3-pointers without a miss, achieved multiple times.
- Caitlin Morrison came up one 3-pointer shy of her career best, going 4-for-9 from deep.
- While on most nights a 4-for-9 line from downtown might stand out, Morrison was actually the only Valpo player on Saturday to miss a 3-pointer. Four other players combined to go 5-for-5 from behind the arc.
- The accurate performance from deep came just 23 days after the team tied a program record for 3-pointers in a game by drilling 17 triples in a win over Bradley.
- Valpo currently ranks 14th nationally and leads the MVC with 9.0 triples/game. That is up from its rate of 8.6 3-pointers/game each of the last two years.
- This year’s squad is just three 3-pointers away from cracking the program’s single-season top-10 in the category.

What a Week For Shay
- A game-winning basket. A career-high scoring performance. A game-tying basket and clutch plays in OT. That was Shay Frederick’s week in a nutshell as she was named College Sports Madness MVC Player of the Week.
- After attempting just two shots in the first 39-plus minutes Wednesday at Loyola, Frederick took the biggest shot of the game, finishing at the basket to give Valpo a two-point lead with 5.2 seconds to play.
- Saturday saw Frederick set a program record for most 3-point makes without a miss, going 6-for-6 from deep, 8-for-12 overall from the field and 6-of-6 from the foul line for a career-best 28 points to go with six assists.
- Five of her triples in the opener against the Salukis came in the second quarter as she scored 17 points in that period alone.
- Then on Sunday, Frederick forced overtime with a layup with 11.7 seconds to play, scored five points in the extra period and also grabbed an offensive rebound off her own missed free throw which led to two more points.
- She finished that game with 20 points, tied her career high with nine rebounds and dished out six more assists.
- For the week, Frederick averaged 18 points/game on 59.3% shooting from the field — including a 7-of-9 mark from the 3-point line — and 78.9% shooting from the foul line. She also averaged 5.3 assists and 4.3 rebounds per game.

So Many Late Heroics
- It’s no wonder head coach Mary Evans is comfortable with the ball in Frederick’s hands in the closing seconds of tight games, as she has now scored to tie or take the lead four baskets in the final seconds of regulation this year.
- Three of those efforts have come within MVC play - in addition to last week’s heroics at Loyola and Southern Illinois, Frederick connected on a game-tying 3-pointer with 6.3 seconds to play Jan. 14 at Illinois State, and then after Valpo had mistakenly fouled, drew a foul herself with three seconds left in regulation and hit both free throws to force OT.
- Earlier this year, in her first career game in her home state, Frederick sent Valpo’s game at Wisconsin to overtime with a driving layup with 1.3 seconds to play in regulation.
- Of course, Frederick’s game-winner last week at Loyola was eerily reminiscent of her game-winning 3-point play against the Ramblers at the ARC last year - right down to the fact both baskets came with 5.2 seconds to play.

Close Games Go Our Way
- The win over the Ramblers in the final seconds maintained the program’s success in close games, both this year and in Mary Evans’ three seasons as head coach.
- Two of Valpo’s MVC wins have come by five points or fewer, as Valpo edged out Bradley in the series opener by five as well.
- Valpo earned a trio of non-conference wins by five points or less as it came away with the victory at Illinois, at Purdue and against Xavier.
- The program is 5-1 in games decided by five or fewer points this year, with its only such loss coming in the second game against Missouri State where the Lady Bears scored the deciding points in the final second.
- Since Evans’ arrival, Valpo is 14-6 in games decided by five or fewer points.
- The Brown and Gold were 4-2 last year and 5-3 in 2018-19 in close games.

Still on the Road
- When Valpo played at Loyola last Wednesday night, it was the program’s first road game in 40 days.
- That was the longest that Valpo has gone between games away from home since the 1989-90 team went 40 days in between a Nov. 25 neutral-site game against UAB and a Jan. 4 game at Loyola Marymount.
- In between, this year’s Valpo squad set its program record for most games in a homestand, playing seven consecutive home games - the 1989-90 team played just four games in between games away from home.
- Valpo will play its final five games of the regular season away from home, its longest stretch of true road games since playing six straight road contests Dec. 19, 1999-Jan. 8, 2000.

Making Debuts
- In an unusual year, it’s only fitting that three different players would see their debuts in the Brown and Gold come in the team’s 17th and 18th games of the year.
- Mid-year freshman enrollee Molly Sheehan debuted with seven fourth-quarter minutes in the opener against Evansville and has seen significant minutes in the four games since.
- The second game against Evansville saw mid-year freshman enrollee Katie Beyer and freshman walk-on Syria Butler both make their debuts, with Beyer recording a rebound.

Claiming Top 100 Wins
- With the MVC a top-8 conference last year by RPI and top-7 this year by NET, it gives Valpo plenty of opportunities for top-100 wins, and the team has taken advantage.
- Valpo opened MVC play this year with a win over UNI, currently ranked #73 in the NET, which is being used by the NCAA for women’s basketball this year.
- Valpo then won at Illinois State Jan. 15, which entered that week ranked #37 in the NET and currently ranked #63, and later earned a home win over Bradley, currently #88 in the NET.
- Valpo now has five top-100 wins in MVC play over the last two years, having beaten Illinois State and UNI in the second half of last year’s conference slate.
- Prior to last year’s win at Illinois State, Valpo had gone nearly seven years since its last top-100 win.

A Normal(ish?) Nonconference
- With all that has happened this year, Valpo had about as normal a nonconference schedule as could be expected.
- All seven of the games that were announced prior to the season were played on their scheduled date, with no postponements or cancellations.
- With that, it was still a truncated nonconference slate, as Valpo played just seven games over a span of 23 days.
- The seven nonconference games are the fewest Valpo has played in a single season since first joining a conference prior to the 1987-88 campaign.
- It also is the fewest games prior to the team’s first conference game since the 1999-2000 squad opened Mid-Con play with a single game in early December after just four nonconference games.
- Valpo finished the pre-conference slate with a 4-3 record after going 8-3 in pre-conference play last year. Before last season, Valpo had finished at or above .500 in pre-conference action just once in the last 10 years.

A Winning Calendar Year
­- When 2020 came to a close, the program had finished with a winning calendar year.
- Valpo went 9-9 in January, February and March, and then went 4-3 in November and December to post a 13-12 record.
- 2020 was the first winning calendar year for the program since going 20-10 in 2007.

A B1G Victory...and Another
- The Dec. 6 win was the second win in program history over Purdue, and the first since dropping the nationally-ranked Boilermakers at the ARC on Dec. 10, 2008.
- The win at Illinois marked Valpo’s first-ever win over the Illini, as the Brown and Gold were previously 0-4 in the series - all four losses coming by at least 19 points.
- Valpo defeated multiple Big Ten teams in the same season for the first time in program history.
- The victory at Illinois was Valpo’s first over a Big Ten team — or any Power Five program, for that matter — since taking down Indiana 64-52 at the ARC to open the 2012-13 campaign.
- After entering the season with just one road win all-time against Big Ten opponents, Valpo now has three such victories.
- B1G teams owned a 39-4 record in home nonconference games this year; Valpo is responsible for two of the four losses.
- Valpo is the first team with multiple nonconference road wins at Big Ten programs since 2017-18.

...and Then a Big Win
- Valpo rolled to an easy win over Western Michigan in its home opener, leading by double figures for the final 31 minutes en route to the 24-point win.
- The 24-point margin of victory was Valpo’s largest over a MAC school since defeating WMU 88-54 way back in December 1996.

Taking Down Power Five Teams
- This year’s squad becomes the third team in program history to defeat two teams from Power Five conferences in the same season.
- The 2001-02 team beat Wake Forest and Michigan, while the 2008-09 squad defeated Florida State in addition to Purdue.
- This year’s team is the first to earn two true road wins over Power Five programs, however.
- In all, the wins over Illinois and Purdue were Valpo’s ninth and 10th victories over Power Five programs in team history - see page five of the notes for a table of all 10 wins.
- The win over Xavier was the ninth in program history against a current Big East program, but victories over Butler were responsible for the other eight wins.

Erasing Double-Digit Deficits
- Valpo came from down 11 in the first half to force overtime and eventually beat Southern Illinois in the series finale Feb. 28, the fourth time this year it has come from 10+ down to win.
- The win over Bradley Feb. 4 saw Valpo incredibly overcome three separate double-digit deficits before earning the victory.
- In the last 20 years, the Brown and Gold had never completely erased even two separate double-digit deficits in a win before the performance against the Braves.
- The MVC-opening win against UNI featured Valpo rallying from an 11-point deficit to win, while against Xavier, Valpo found itself down by as many as 12 points in the first quarter before eventually earning the win.
- 10 times in Mary Evans’ tenure as head coach has Valpo erased a double-figure deficit in a victory - last year’s team did so four times, while the 2018-19 team did so twice. Nine of those wins have come since the last time Valpo surrendered a double-digit lead in a loss (Feb. 15, 2019).
- The speed with which Valpo has turned around and gained a lead when trailing by double figures in this year’s wins has been impressive - versus Xavier, Valpo went from down 12 to leading in just 3:10, and then in the win over UNI, Valpo went from down 10 to leading in just 3:05.
- The two third-quarter 10-point deficits versus Bradley were erased in 3:19 and 3:23.