(VALPO RELEASE)
Valparaiso (3-7, 0-2 MVC) at Southern Illinois (7-3, 1-3 MVC)
Game No. 11 – Saturday, Jan. 16 – 3 p.m. CT Game No. 12 – Sunday, Jan. 17 – 3 p.m. CT Banterra Center (8,283) – Carbondale, Ill.
Next Up in Valpo Basketball: The Valparaiso University men’s basketball team will play its first road conference series of the season this weekend, making its way to Carbondale for a back-to-back against Southern Illinois. The games against the Salukis will tip off at 3 p.m. on both Saturday and Sunday.
Last Time Out: After 20 days without a game and limited practice time, Valpo dropped both games of last weekend’s home series with Missouri State to start Missouri Valley Conference play. The hosts trailed by just four at halftime on Saturday despite the Bears shooting a robust 70.8 percent in the opening half, but the Brown & Gold fell 81-68 despite 21 points apiece by sophomores Ben Krikke and Donovan Clay. Four Valpo players scored in double figures on Sunday led by Eron Gordon and Jacob Ognacevic with 13 each, but Valpo fell by the similar score of 78-68.
Following Valpo Basketball: Video, Saturday – The Valley ESPN3/+ Exclusive – Harry Schroeder (play-by-play) and Kelly Burke (analyst)
Video, Sunday – ESPN3/+ – Connor Onion (play-by-play) and Mike Trude (analyst)
Radio – WVUR (95.1 FM, Valparaiso) – Todd Ickow (play-by-play) and Brandon Vickrey (analyst)
Twitter updates - @ValpoBasketball
Links for video, audio and live stats will be available at ValpoAthletics.com.
Head Coach Matt Lottich: Matt Lottich (76-67) is in his eighth season overall at Valpo and fifth as head coach in 2020-21. Just two years removed from finishing in last place and being knocked out in the first round of the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament as a first-year Valley member, Lottich’s team did more than hold its own in 2019-2020, ascending into a tie for sixth in the league standings before finishing as the conference tournament runner-up. Valpo became the first team in the history of Arch Madness to reach the title game after playing in the opening round. Lottich, hired as the 22nd head coach of the Valpo men’s basketball program in April 2016, graduated from Stanford University in 2004 and New Trier High School (Illinois) in 2000.
Noteworthy Trends
· If Ben Krikke reaches doubles figures on Saturday vs. Southern Illinois, it will be his ninth time in double figures in the first 11 games of his sophomore season, matching his total number of double-figure outputs in 33 games as a freshman last season. He has scored in double figures in five straight entering this weekend.
· After going 0-for-7 from 3-point distance over the season’s first four games, Krikke did not attempt a 3 in the next four games before going 2-for-2 on Jan. 9 vs. Missouri State.
· Jacob Ognacevic is an efficient 8-for-12 shooting over his last four games despite two games in that stretch where he totaled just one field-goal attempt (Dec. 19 at Toledo, Jan. 9 vs. Missouri State). He went 4-of-7 for 13 points in just 12 minutes on Jan. 10 vs. Missouri State.
· After making 10 or more turnovers in each of the season’s first seven games, Valpo has committed nine giveaways or fewer in each of its last three contests. This is the first time Valpo has strung together three straight games with fewer than 10 turnovers since a stretch of five such games in February 2017, the program’s final season in the Horizon League and Matt Lottich’s first year as head coach.
· Valpo has won the turnover battle in six of its last seven games.
· Valpo is 0-7 when scoring fewer points at the free-throw line than its opponents, but the team is 3-0 when outscoring opponents at the stripe.
· A win on Saturday would help Valpo avoid its first four-game losing streak since Jan. 23-Feb. 2, 2019. Valpo is also hoping to avoid an 0-3 start to conference play, something it has done just once over the last 20 years.
· One area where the team hopes to show improvement this weekend is on the glass. Valpo has been outrebounded in five straight games, eight out of 10 this season and 15 of the last 19 games dating back to last season.
· Valpo has given up more offensive rebounds than it would like this season, with a league-low defensive rebounding percentage of 70.7. However, Southern Illinois has the lowest offensive rebounding percentage (17.1) and offensive rebounding average (5.2) in the MVC, so something has to give on the glass this weekend.
· Entering this weekend, Donovan Clay has started 41 consecutive games. He made his first start during the third game of his freshman season (2019-20) and has started every game since.
MVC Play Finally Underway
· Valpo played its first MVC games of the season this past weekend, starting conference play at home for the third straight season, this time vs. Missouri State.
· The Jan. 9 start to conference play marked Valpo’s latest since head coach Scott Drew’s team commenced the Mid-Continent Conference slate on Jan. 11, 2003 vs. Western Illinois.
· Saturday at Southern Illinois marks Valpo’s first MVC road game of the season. Valpo will look to prevail in its first conference road game for the third straight season (W 81-79 in OT at Evansville on Jan. 4, 2020; W 82-66 at Missouri State on Jan. 5, 2019). Valpo has won its first league road game in three of Matt Lottich’s first four seasons and four of the last five years overall.
Notes Wrapping Up Jan. 10 vs. Missouri State (Missouri State 78, Valpo 68)
· Valpo hosted home games on back-to-back days for the first time since starting the 2016-17 season with home dates vs. Southern Utah (Nov. 11) and Trinity Christian (Nov. 12), the first two games under Matt Lottich.
· Valpo boasted four players in double figures, led by Jacob Ognacevic and Eron Gordon with 13 points apiece. Gordon paced the team in scoring for the first time in his Valpo career, while Ognacevic did so for the second time during his freshman season.
· Gordon’s scoring output represented a season high, his top performance since Feb. 22 of last season, when he scored 13 vs. Bradley. Gordon was three rebounds away from a double-double as he pulled down seven, one shy of his career high from this year’s season opener at Vanderbilt.
· Ognacevic’s 13 points came on 4-of-7 shooting in just 12 minutes of action.
· Sheldon Edwards reached nine points for the second straight day, this time finishing with 10 points. He has scored in double figures on four occasions this season.
· Ben Krikke scored 12 points to finish in double figures for the eighth time in the season’s first 10 games.
· Daniel Sackey sent out a team-high six assists while also going 5-of-6 at the free-throw line and swiping a pair of steals.
· Missouri State’s Gaige Prim posted a double-double of 16 points and 10 rebounds to go along with Mosley’s 29-point performance. Mosley’s 26 second-half points marked the most by a Valpo opponent in a single half since Reggie Hamilton of Oakland had 28 in the second half on Dec. 17, 2011.
· Valpo was held to a season-low 35.4 percent shooting, but did haul in 11 offensive rebounds, snapping a streak of three straight games with five or fewer.
· Valpo dropped back-to-back home contests for the first time since December 2018 vs. High Point and Ball State.
Notes Wrapping Up Jan. 9 vs. Missouri State (Missouri State 81, Valpo 68)
· Valpo shot a season-high 40.7 percent from 3-point range (11-of-27). It was the team’s highest 3-point clip since going 11-of-22 on Feb. 25 of last season, also at home against Missouri State. However, Valpo’s overall shooting percentage of 41.1 on Saturday was its lowest in the last seven games to that point.
· Valpo had a season-low seven turnovers. The team had just one game all of last season where it committed seven or fewer turnovers, also vs. Missouri State (7 in MVC semifinal matchup). It was the team’s fifth time under Matt Lottich (fifth season) with seven turnovers or fewer, and three have come vs. Missouri State.
· Donovan Clay enjoyed his fourth career 20-point game and his second this season. The sophomore’s 21 points marked a season high, surpassing his output of 20 from Dec. 12 at Central Michigan.
· Clay finished one-point shy of a career high, which occurred in last season’s home matchup with Missouri State (Feb. 25), when he scored 22 points. Half of Clay’s scoring outputs of 20+ have coming against Missouri State.
· This was the second straight year Clay made four 3s in the MVC opener, as both of his career games with four 3-pointers came to open up MVC play (Dec. 30, 2019 vs. Loyola).
· 9 vs. Missouri State marked Clay’s 25th career double-figure scoring showing and his sixth in the first nine games this season.
· Ben Krikke had shattered his previous season high by halftime on his way to his career-high 21. His previous season watermark was 16 at Toledo (Dec. 19) and his previous career best was 18 vs. Trinity Christian (Nov. 27, 2019).
· Krikke’s 17 points in the first half were the most in a single half by a Valpo player this season, surpassing Jacob Ognacevic’s 16-point second half vs. Judson. Krikke joins Javon Freeman-Liberty (twice), Tevonn Walker (twice) and Alec Peters (twice during his senior season, Lottich’s first season) as the only four players with 17 or more first-half points in a game during the Matt Lottich Era.
· Connor Barrett finished with 11 points for his fourth double-figure scoring output of the season. Before being held to three points on Sunday, Jan. 10 vs. Missouri State, Barrett had scored nine points or more in five of his previous six games.
· Barrett accounted for five of the team’s nine steals, matching his steal total from the season’s first eight games in one game on Saturday, Jan. 9 to double his season total to 10 (now 11). He became the first Valpo player with five steals in a game since Freeman-Liberty on Feb. 15 of last season at Illinois State and the first player not named Javon with a five-steal game since Tevonn Walker on Jan. 13, 2018 at UNI.
· Barrett joined the short list of players with five or more steals in a game during the Matt Lottich Era: Javon Freeman-Liberty (3), Lexus Williams (3) and Tevonn Walker (2).
· Edwards chipped in nine points as freshmen and sophomores (specifically, the quarter of Krikke, Edwards, Clay and Barrett) accounted for 62 of the team’s 68 points (91.1 percent).
· Valpo’s last two games with a pair of 20-point scorers have both come against Missouri State (Donovan Clay & Ryan Fazekas, Feb. 25, 2020; Clay & Krikke, Saturday, Jan. 9, 2021).
· Missouri State’s 70.8 percent shooting clip in the first half was the highest by a Valpo opponent in a single half since Dec. 28, 2017 (at Indiana State, 72.2 percent, 2nd half). Missouri State’s performance was the highest shooting percentage in the first half of a game by a Valpo opponent since Jan. 13, 1992 (vs. Western Illinois, 72.3 percent).
· The defeat snapped a six-game home winning streak that dated back to Feb. 5 of last season (L 63-51 vs. UNI). All six wins during that streak came by 12 points or more.
Series Notes: Southern Illinois
· Valpo has won six of the first 10 matchups between these two squads, which hadn’t met since 1980 until Valpo joined the MVC prior to the 2017-18 campaign.
· Valpo has won three of the last four matchups, including a 55-38 win at the ARC on Feb. 12, 2020 in the most recent clash. Valpo set a program record for the fewest points allowed against a Division-I opponent during the shot clock era. Ben Krikke led the way with 15 points and seven rebounds. SIU shot just 23.6 percent, the lowest by an MVC team in conference play since 2007.
· Valpo flipped a 13-point loss in the first meeting into a 17-point victory in the second meeting, the first time it turned a double-figure setback into a double-figure victory in the same season since 2008-2009 (vs. Loyola).
Inside the Salukis
· Lost three straight games (two to undefeated Drake) before having last weekend’s scheduled series at Indiana State postponed.
· Selected fifth in this year’s MVC preseason poll.
· Sophomore Marcus Domask was named to the preseason All-MVC Second Team. He was the Freshman and Newcomer of the Year in the MVC last season while also earning second team all-conference honors.
· Domask leads the team in scoring with 16.3 points per game, while Lance Jones (11.9) and Ben Harvey (11.7) also average in double figures.
· Picked 10th in the MVC but instead finished fifth in Bryan Mullins’ first season in charge of the program in 2019-20.
· Mullins, a Saluki Hall of Famer for his playing career from 2006-2009, previously served as an assistant coach at Loyola.
Krikke’s Big Half
When Ben Krikke scored 17 points in the opening half on Jan. 9 vs. Missouri State, he became just the fourth different Valpo player with 17 or more points before halftime during the Matt Lottich head coaching tenure (fifth season). Below is a list of instances of Valpo players with 17+ points in the first half of a game since Lottich took over in 2016-17.
Player Points Opponent Date
Ben Krikke 17 vs. Missouri State Jan. 9, 2021
Javon Freeman-Liberty 17 at UNI Jan. 15, 2020
Javon Freeman-Liberty 20 at Illinois State Feb. 5, 2019
Tevonn Walker 18 at SIUE Feb. 15, 2018
Tevonn Walker 19 vs. Drake Jan. 10, 2018
Alec Peters 17 vs. Wright State Jan. 27, 2017
Alec Peters 23 vs. Indiana State Dec. 17, 2016
A Look Back at 2019-20: Just two years removed from finishing in last place and being knocked out in the first round of the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament as a first-year Valley member, head coach Matt Lottich’s team did more than hold its own, ascending into a tie for sixth in the league standings before finishing as the conference tournament runner-up. Valpo became the first team in the history of Arch Madness to reach the title game after playing in the opening round.
Preseason Picks
· Sophomore Donovan Clay was named to the Preseason MVC Second Team.
· Valpo was picked to finish eighth in the preseason poll based on a survey of the conference’s head coaches, media members and sports information directors.
· Valpo exceeded preseason expectations a year ago after being picked to finish ninth. The Brown & Gold tied for sixth in the regular-season standings and went on to finish as the conference tournament runner-up.
Who’s Back, Who’s New?
· This year’s team features 11 returning letter winners (nine scholarship, two walk-on) to go along with six newcomers (four scholarship, two walk-on).
· Three letter winners departed from last year’s team.
· Valpo returns 59.2 percent of its scoring and 64.3 percent of its rebounding from last season. Both numbers are up from a year ago, when Valpo returned just 40.1 percent of its scoring and 35.7 percent of its rebounding from 2018-19.
· Last season, the entire roster was from either Indiana, Illinois or outside the United States. This year, Valpo has added three additional states to the mix in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Florida.
· Still, six players hail from Illinois and four from Indiana. The six Illinois natives are the most since 2015-16.
· Coincidentally, Valpo’s last player from the state of Florida before Sheldon Edwards shares the same last name. Lakeland native Richie Edwards played for the Brown & Gold during the 2011-2012 campaign.
· Goodnews Kpegeol is the first Valpo player from the state of Minnesota since Cory Johnson’s final season on campus in 2010-2011.
· Jacob Ognacevic is Valpo’s first player from Wisconsin since Andrew Ferry in 2008-2009.
Arrow Pointed Up
· Valpo made its first conference championship appearance since 2015, doing so after being picked to finish ninth in the preseason poll.
· Valpo reached the conference title game as only a third-year Missouri Valley Conference member. When Valpo transitioned from the Mid-Continent Conference to the Horizon League prior to the 2007-2008 season, the program didn’t reach the conference championship game until Year 5 and followed by winning its first Horizon League Tournament title in Year 6.
· The men’s basketball program became the first Valpo team in any sport to reach the Missouri Valley Conference championship game during the department’s young tenure in the prestigious league.
· Valpo accepted a postseason tournament invitation for the first time since joining The Valley, agreeing to a CollegeInsider.com Tournament berth before the event was canceled due to the coronavirus.
· The program had its largest win increase from the previous season (four) since jumping from 18 wins in 2013-14 to 28 in 2014-15.
· Valpo finished with a winning record during the nonconference portion of the season for the 10th straight year. In addition, Valpo continued its history of home dominance and hasn’t finished with a losing mark at the ARC since 1991-92, extending its streak to 28 seasons. Valpo achieved a double-figure home win total for the ninth time in the last 10 years.
2019-20 Team Statistical Feats
· Led the Missouri Valley Conference in assists per game at 15.2, the first time Valpo led a conference in that area since pacing the Horizon League in 2011-2012. The 15.2 assists per game was Valpo’s highest total since 2010-11 (15.8 apg) and the team’s second-highest output over the last 13 seasons. The squad ranked 29th nationally in assists per game and 12th in total assists.
· Averaged 7.7 steals per game to rank second in the MVC and totaled 270 steals, a number that ranked 18th The team had its highest steals average since 2010-11 and the second-highest over the last 16 seasons.
· The team averaged 72.3 points per game, second in the MVC. That was the team’s second-highest scoring average over the last eight seasons. In addition, the team jumped 5.5 points per game from 2018-19 to 2019-20.
· Valpo made 287 3-pointers, the team’s second-most since 2008-09 and the third-most over the last 30 years.
· The team had 922 made field goals, its third most over the last 30 years.
· Valpo committed just 12.7 turnovers per game, the team’s lowest total over the last 30 seasons.
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