GAME NOTES: Still without a true road win this season, the Southern Illinois Salukis give it another shot tonight as they visit the Evansville Purple Aces for a Missouri Valley Conference showdown at Roberts Stadium. On Saturday, the Salukis were in Terre Haute where Indiana State knocked down a three-pointer in the second overtime to send SIU away with a 64-62 setback. The loss was the third in the last four outings for the Salukis who enter this week with a record of just 2-3 in league play. As for the Purple Aces, they have yet to win a single conference matchup in five tries, the only MVC program without such a victory. On Saturday, it was Illinois State that pushed Evansville aside in a 74-66 decision. The setback was the fifth in a row overall for the program and dropped it to 1-6 on the road. Southern Illinois comes into this meeting with a record of 58-46 in the all-time series versus the Purple Aces, dating back to 1927.

Matt Shaw had a double-double with 16 points and 14 rebounds, but even the performance was not enough to keep the Salukis out of the loss column over the weekend. Shaw's efforts were far from flawless though, as he shot just 5-of-17 from the field and turned the ball over six times. Bryan Mullins added 18 points as he made 7-of-18 shots from the floor, followed by Tyrone Green off the bench with 14 points and nine rebounds. A starter in all 16 games this season, Shaw is now first on the team with his 12.5 ppg and is second on the glass with close to six and a half rebounds per outing. However, as he displayed on Saturday, his shooting from the field (.403) could use some work, as could his three-point accuracy (.289), not to mention his mere 15 assists and 44 turnovers thus far. Randal Falker accounts for 11.9 ppg and 6.9 rpg. The team is producing just 61.8 ppg, but that's still better than the 61.4 ppg the squad is giving up at the moment.

More than anything else, the Purple Aces hurt themselves with poor shooting at the free-throw line. Considering the game with Illinois State was decided by just eight points, had Evansville done better than 19-of-35 at the charity stripe the outcome would have been quite different. Shy Ely came up with a team-best 28 points as he made all three of his three-point attempts, followed by Jason Holsinger who added 10 and six assists before fouling out. Holsinger, a 45.7 percent shooter from three-point range this season, remains the team's top scoring threat with his 13.1 ppg, but Ely is now closer than ever with his 12.1 ppg. While Holsinger focuses his efforts out on the perimeter where he has also managed to hand out a team-best 68 assists, Ely gets involved in the paint and is now second on the team in rebounding with five and a half per contest. The Aces don't score a lot of points (60.9 ppg), but they also don't surrender that many (64.5 ppg).

With as close as Evansville came to knocking off the Redbirds, Southern Illinois should be ready for a fight in this matchup. However, this should be the right opportunity for the Salukis to pick up that elusive first road win of the season.