Under the Radar Game of the Day: Illinois State at Evansville

Illinois State at Evansville, 4:00 PM Eastern, espn3

The Under the Radar Game of the Day heads to Evansville, Indiana today as the Evansville Aces host the Missouri Valley Conference leading Illinois State Redbirds.  Although the Aces have struggles since conference play began (1-8 in conference, 10-12 overall), they are still 9-3 at home and will not simply allow the Redbirds to come into their house and walk away with an easy victory.  The Aces are led by senior Jaylon Brown who has scored 20 or more points ten times already this season.  He was extremely impressive last week in a home loss to Wichita State, where he scored 28 points, close to half of his team’s 65 on the game.  An effort like that against Illinois State tonight could lead the Aces to the upset victory and give them a chance to move up in the conference standings, at least in an attempt to finish 6th or higher and avoid a pay-in game during Arch Madness.

Illinois State is one of a handful of teams left in the nation that is undefeated in conference play.  The Redbirds enter play this afternoon at a perfect 9-0 in conference and 17-4 overall.  They are coming off a 5 point win earlier this week over Indiana State in which three players, Deontae Hawkins, Paris Lee and Phil Fayne, all scored 18 or more points.  Hawkins added 12 rebounds for his fourth double-double of the year.  With Wichita State only a game back pending their game at Bradley today (4:00 PM Eastern, ESPNU), the Redbirds have almost no margin for error in the race to win the MVC regular season title.  Both the Redbirds and the Shockers are also toeing at-large bid consideration, but losses to any teams other than each other the rest of the way could spell doom for those chances.