Valparaiso (7-15, 5-6 MVC)
Game #23 - February 10, 2022 - 6 p.m.
Bradley (4-16, 1-10 MVC)
Athletics-Recreation Center (5,000) - Valparaiso, Ind.
Next Up in Valpo Basketball: The Valpo women’s basketball team starts a stretch in which it will play five of its final seven regular season games at home at the ARC on Thursday evening when the Beacons welcome Bradley to town.
Previously: Valpo was unable to complete a weekend sweep of its road trip through Iowa on Sunday, as host UNI earned a 68-38 victory over the Beacons. Senior Carie Weinman reached the 1,000-point milestone for her collegiate career with a basket early in the fourth quarter.
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Head Coach Mary Evans: Mary Evans is in her fourth year at the helm of the program in 2021-22 and owns a record of 44-64. Evans has made an immediate impact on the program in her first three years, raising the team’s level of play to be competitive in a strong Missouri Valley Conference. Evans’ preferred style of play has been a big part of the program’s turnaround, as Valpo has led the MVC in 3-pointers made per game and in steals per game in each of the last two seasons.
Series Notes: The Braves lead the all-time series over Valpo, 12-4, and are 6-3 in nine matchups since Valpo joined the MVC prior to the 2017-18 season. In the first meeting this year, the Beacons earned their first-ever win over the Braves in Peoria, capturing a 68-61 victory. Caitlin Morrison hit a pair of key 3-pointers late as part of a team-best 15-point performance, while Leah Earnest registered the first double-double of her collegiate career with 11 points and 10 rebounds.
@ValpoWBB...
...and @ValleyHoops
- Valpo has been picked to finish in sixth place in the MVC preseason poll, totaling 208 points - just one point shy of fifth place.
- Valpo is in its fifth season as a member of the Missouri Valley Conference.
- The Valley was ranked seventh nationally in conference NET in 2020-21 and was eighth nationally in conference RPI in 2019-20.
...looking back at last year
- Valpo posted a 12-13 overall record during the 2020-21 season and went 7-9 in Missouri Valley Conference play.
- Valpo finished the regular season in seventh place in the MVC standings.
- Included among Valpo’s 12 victories were wins at Illinois and at Purdue, the program’s first Power Five wins since 2012-13.
- Valpo closed the season with a NET of 122 - the program’s best final NET/RPI ranking since the 2003-04 campaign.
- Shay Frederick was a First Team All-MVC honoree as she led the Valley in assists and ranked sixth in scoring.
- Carie Weinman earned Honorable Mention All-MVC notice and repeated on the All-Defensive Team as she led the Valley in steals for a second straight season.
...at UNI
- Valpo never led on Sunday, with the Panthers scoring the first five points of the game.
- The Beacons got to within 9-7 with 4:18 to play in the opening period on a 3-pointer from Carie Weinman.
- UNI ended the quarter on an 8-0 run and then scored the first five points of the second quarter to extend its lead to 15 points with 7:44 to play in the half. Valpo would not cut the deficit to single digits the rest of the way.
- Valpo’s 38 points marked its second-lowest output of the season (South Dakota).
- The Beacons shot just 25% from the floor on Sunday, matched a season low with four 3-pointers and committed 17 turnovers.
- Weinman paced the Beacons with seven points, while Caitlin Morrison scored six and led Valpo with five rebounds.
...at Drake
- Drake led for most of the first half and pushed its lead to as many as 10 before holding a 39-32 lead at intermission.
- The Beacons went on a 12-3 run over the first four minutes of the second half to take a 44-42 lead, their first lead since the opening minutes of the game.
- The teams vied for control the remainder of the third quarter, as neither squad gained more than a 3-point lead. The Bulldogs led 51-50 with 10 minutes to play.
- Valpo and Drake traded baskets in the first two minutes of the fourth quarter, but after Drake connected on a second-chance basket with 8:27 to play in the game, the Beacons held the Bulldogs off the board for over three minutes. In that stretch, Valpo scored nine straight points — five from Carie Weinman and four from Shay Frederick — to push its advantage to eight points approaching the halfway mark of the quarter.
- Valpo led by as many as nine with 4:05 to play before the Bulldogs made a run to close to within 66-65 with 1:33 to play.
- The teams traded stops before Olivia Brown hit Weinman on a back cut for a layup with 24.9 seconds to play to make it a 3-point game.
- Weinman then got it done on the defensive end, coming up with a steal to ensure the Bulldogs would not get a shot to potentially tie the game.
- The win completed Valpo’s season sweep of the Bulldogs after having entered the season 0-13 all-time versus Drake.
- Valpo enjoyed its best game of the season from the foul line, hitting a season-best 21 free throws on 84% shooting (21-of-25).
- The Beacons were a +6 in the turnover department, committing just 13 miscues to Drake’s 19. More importantly, Valpo came up with 14 steals to tie a season high while the Bulldogs tallied just one steal, leading to a 30-14 advantage in points off turnovers for the Beacons.
- Valpo and Drake were tied on the glass, 35-35, and Valpo grabbed a season-high 13 offensive rebounds. The Beacons limited the Bulldogs to just eight second-chance points.
...looking ahead
- Valpo closes out the weekend at home with a Saturday afternoon game against Illinois State.
- The Beacons then hit the road once again, traveling to Evansville and Indiana State next weekend.
...at the ARC
- Thursday is the fifth MVC home game of the season and the ninth of 13 home games in total this year for the Beacons.
- Valpo posted a 5-6 record at the ARC last season and is currently 4-4 at home this year.
@BradleyWBB
- Bradley enters Thursday’s game with a 4-16 overall record and is 1-10 in MVC play.
- The Braves snapped a 16-game losing streak last time out with a 77-67 home win over Evansville.
- First Team All-MVC performer Gabi Haack is out for the season due to injury, leaving freshman Caroline Waite (12.6 points/game) as the team’s active leading scorer. Tatum Koenig averages 11.4 points/game as well and leads the Braves with 71 assists.
Ups and Downs
- Valley play over the last month for the Beacons has been a yo-yo in terms of results.
- Starting with the Jan. 9 victory over Bradley, Valpo has alternated wins and losses in each of its last eight games.
- Coming off a loss last time out at UNI, that trend holding for another game would mean a positive outcome on Thursday for the Beacons.
- This is the program’s longest stretch of alternating results since the 1998-99 team oscillated between losses and victories for nine consecutive games to open the campaign.
Accomplishing Firsts
- Valpo has recorded a number of firsts in program history during conference play this year.
- The Beacons have registered their first road win over two MVC teams this season, winning for the first time both at Drake and at Bradley.
- Both Drake and Bradley were previously 6-0 at home versus Valpo before this season.
- The win at the Knapp Center completed Valpo’s first season sweep of Drake, the program’s first two wins ever against the Bulldogs.
- Prior to the Beacons’ win at the ARC over Drake earlier this season, the Bulldogs held a 13-0 advantage in the all-time series.
- That leaves Missouri State as the lone program the Beacons have yet to beat since joining the MVC.
- The win over Drake in January also gave Valpo its first sweep of the UNI/Drake weekend in MVC play.
- It is Valpo’s fourth sweep of a weekend set since joining the Valley. Valpo previously swept both the home and road Indiana State/Evansville weekends in 2019-20, and took down Southern Illinois twice on back-to-back days last season.
Reaching Milestones
- Valpo has had two players reach the 1,000-point milestone for their collegiate career already this season, with a third being within striking distance of doing so as well by season’s end.
- Last time out at UNI, Carie Weinman hit a shot on Valpo’s first possession of the fourth quarter to reach the milestone.
- Weinman has now scored 1,002 career points - 191 in one season at Denver, and 811 in her three seasons in the Valpo uniform.
- Earlier this season, Shay Frederick surpassed 1,000 career points in Valpo’s game at South Dakota.
- Meanwhile, Grace White comes into the Bradley game with 940 career points, putting her on track to potentially reach the milestone as well this season.
- White scored 277 points in her two years at Denver and is at 663 points in her time at Valpo.
What a Rally
- Three of Valpo’s five MVC victories have seen the Beacons overcome double-digit deficits at some point during the game to earn the win.
- Valpo has now rallied from down 10 or more to win 13 times in head coach Mary Evans’ four-year tenure at the helm of the program.
- Most recently at Drake, the Beacons trailed by 10 in the first half before coming back for the victory.
- Valpo’s home win over UNI featured a comeback from down 13 in the fourth quarter, tying the program’s largest comeback in the final period since the move to quarters — Valpo previously rallied from a 13-point deficit in the fourth quarter in a 66-64 win over Loyola on Jan. 24, 2020.
- Against Evansville, the Beacons trailed by as many as 14 points before picking up the win - it was Valpo’s largest comeback overall since the aforementioned Loyola game, which featured a 14-point deficit at one point.
Top 100 Wins
- Valpo has made a habit of knocking off top-100 opponents in MVC play over the last few seasons and has done so three times this year.
- The home win over UNI came over a team which entered the night ranked #46 in NET, and the home victory came over a Drake squad which was #65.
- Most recently, the road win at Drake came over a Bulldogs squad which entered the day at #84.
- Valpo now has eight top-100 NET/RPI wins in Valley action over the last three seasons.
- Prior to its Feb. 16, 2020 win at Illinois State - its first top-100 win in conference play since joining the Valley - Valpo had gone nearly seven years without a top-100 victory.
White Does It All
- Senior Grace White has continued to stuff the stat sheet in her final season in the Brown and Gold, and took it to another level in the victory at Drake.
- White finished the game with a team-high 20 points, a career-best 11 rebounds and six steals, also matching a career high.
- White needed just the first 20 minutes to record her third double-double at Valpo, entering halftime with 14 points and 10 rebounds - the first Valpo player since November 2016 to post a double-double in the first half.
- White leads the team in rebounding and steals and ranks second in scoring, assists and blocked shots.
- White leads the Valley in steals (2.6/game) and ranks eighth in rebounding (6.0/game).
- She currently ranks among the top-50 nationally in steals/game as well.
Frederick Moves On Up
- One season after leading the Valley in assists, Shay Frederick again tops the chart this season as she’s averaging 4.3 assists/game.
- Frederick is trying to become the first MVC player to lead the conference in assists in consecutive seasons since Caitlin Ingle of Drake did so three straight seasons (2014-15 through 2016-17).
- Frederick has 443 career assists, third-most in program history and just five shy of Katie Boone for second.
- One of 17 players in program history to reach the 1,000-point milestone for her career, Frederick ranks 12th all-time at Valpo with 1,156 career points.
- Frederick is one of just two players in program history with at least 1,000 career points and 400 career assists, and just one of three active MVC players above those marks (Brice Calip, MSU and Karli Rucker, UNI).
- Frederick also is just two triples away from cracking Valpo’s top-five in 3-pointers made.
Liv Breaks Out
- Junior Olivia Brown has stood out for the Beacons within MVC play.
- In Valley games, Brown is averaging 11.2 ppg - second on the team - on 47.9% shooting from the field and 41.2% from 3-point range.
- This comes after Brown averaged just 2.5 ppg through non-conference action and hit a total of nine field goals in the first 11 games.
- Included among her efforts in conference play so far are five double-digit scoring performances, and she has led all players three times - 21 points at Missouri State, 18 points in the win over UNI and 21 points in the win over Evansville.
- Brown was named MVC Newcomer of the Week on Jan. 10 for her performances in the victories over UNI and Drake - Valpo’s first MVC Newcomer of the Week since March 9, 2020.
