SW Indiana News

Eagles open OVC Tournament with SIUE

University of Southern Indiana Men's Basketball begins its first Ohio Valley Conference Tournament action Wednesday when it takes on Southern Illinois University Edwardsville in the opening round at the Ford Center. Game time is set for 9 p.m.

 

The Screaming Eagles (16-15 9-9 OVC) open OVC Tournament play as the seventh seed in the tournament after splitting the final week of the regular season. USI lost a heartbreaker to Tennessee Tech University, 82-79, at Screaming Eagles Arena, but bounced back to defeat Tennessee State University, 93-81, on the road.

 

USI sophomore guard Isaiah Swope (Newburgh, Indiana) led five Eagles in double-digits for the week with 25.5 points per game. Graduate forward Trevor Lakes (Lebanon, Indiana) followed with 18.0 points per outing, while sophomore guard Jeremiah Hernandez (Chicago, Illinois) dropped in a season-best 13.5 points per contest. Senior guard Jelani Simmons (Columbus, Ohio) and senior forward Jacob Polakovich (Grand Rapids, Michigan) averaged 12.0 points per game each.

 

For the season, the Eagles finished their first NCAA Division I season over .500, marking the 31st-straight season that USI has had a winning record. The streak started in 1992-93 under first-year Head Coach Bruce Pearl and has included the 1995 Division II national championship; 1994 and 2004 Division II Tournament final; the 2019 Division II semifinals appearance.

 

Swope and Simmons lead the Eagles in 2022-23 with 15.6 points and 13.8 points, respectively. Polakovich is averaging 12.8 points per outing along with grabbing a team-best and OVC-best 12.8 rebounds per game.

 

SIUE (18-13, 9-9 OVC) opens OVC Tournament play after earning the sixth seed with a final week split and won the tiebreaker with USI. The Cougars broke a four-game losing streak with their 93-78 win over Southeast Missouri State University in the regular season finale.

 

USI leads the all-time series, 45-21, that started in 1971-72. The Eagles and the Cougars split the 2022-23 season series, each winning on the others home court (SIUE 69, @USI 62; USI 82, @SIUE 72).

 

Four of the last five meetings between the Eagles and the Cougars have gone in USI's direction, dating back to 2007 when teams faced off in the GLVC.

 

In the post-season, SIUE has a 3-0 lead over USI in the post-season, all NCAA Division II Tournament meetings. The Cougars won the 1986 (90-87) and 1987 (88-82) NCAA II Great Lakes Regional meetings in Owensboro, Kentucky, and the 2006 (64-60) NCAA II Midwest Regional in Rensselaer, Indiana.

The winner of the USI-SIUE contest Wednesday advances to play the University of Tennessee at Martin Thursday at 9 p.m. UT Martin (18-13, 10-8 OVC), the third seed in the tournament, earned a first round bye.

The first two rounds of the OVC Tournament will be streamed live on ESPN+ in addition to being heard on ESPN 97.7FM and 95.7FM The Spin. The OVC Tournament semifinal games will air live on ESPNU, while the championship game will air live on ESPN2 and Westwood One.

 

Original source can be found here.