Hot Starts
Illinois State, Southern Illinois and Indiana State all sit with only one Valley loss entering this week’s schedule.

Illinois State sits 6-1 in Valley play for the first time since 2009-10 when the Redbirds started 15-1 in MVC action on the way to a regular season title.  

Southern Illinois is off to the program’s best start in Valley play since the 2006-07 team that won the MVC regular season title with a 16-2 record. 

Indiana State is off to its best start in Valley play since the 2016-17 season at 4-1 through its first five conference games. The Sycamores have won six of their last seven, including three straight.

Home Sweet Home
The most wins by home teams in league play came in 2008 (61-29 at home in conference play). The league has compiled an 22-10 (.688) mark so far in 2021-22.

The lone MVC team unbeaten at home is Southern Illinois at 6-0 this season. 

Home Streak Ended
Illinois State held on to snap Missouri State’s 15-game home winning streak, taking down the Lady Bears, 52-51 on Saturday. Juliunn Redmond led the way for the Redbirds, scoring a game-high 19 points. Junior DeAnna Wilson posted her fourth double-double of the season, finishing with 16 points and 10 rebounds.  

ESPN Bracketology
The latest ESPN.com women’s basketball bracketology from Charlie Creme (Jan. 25) has two MVC teams in the field of 64. Illinois State represents The Valley’s AQ and is a 15 seed at No. 2 seed Arizona. Missouri State is a No. 9 seed playing DePaul at South Carolina.  

The MVC is one of just eight leagues receiving multiple bids, joining the Power Five leagues, American and Big East. 

Elite Defense
Missouri State enters the week currently ranking in the top 20 nationally in four defensive categories, including:  Field Goal Percentage Defense (17th, 34.9%), blocks per game (15th, 5.4.), Scoring Defense (8th, 51.4 ppg) and Three-Point Field Goal Defense (5th, 24.2%). 

The Lady Bears are one of just two teams nationally ranking in the top 20 in all four of those categories, joining #4 Tennessee.

NET Update
The NCAA NET Report (Jan. 25) has six Valley teams that rank in the top-150.  Missouri State leads the way at No. 35 with UNI (50), Drake (85), Southern Illinois (97), Loyola Chicago (114) and Illinois State (142) rounding out the schools in the Top 150.  The Valley sits 10th as a league. 

Team                     NET
Missouri State        35
UNI                        50
Drake                      85
Southern Illinois     97
Loyola                  114
Illinois State         142
Indiana State       182
Valparaiso            246
Bradley                252
Evansville            273
MVC                      10

Silvey Sets Scoring Mark
SIU’s Makenzie Silvey scored her 1,780th career point to break the program’s all-time scoring record as the Salukis defeated Bradley 53-41 on Saturday in Banterra Center. Silvey passed Cartaesha Macklin’s mark of 1,779 points set in 2016. Silvey is currently averaging a career-high 16.1 points per game, good for second in the Missouri Valley Conference.

HerHoopStats.com Stat of the Week
The only two teams nationally holding Division I opponents to less than 42% on two-point field goals, 25% on three-point field goals, and less than 10 offensive rebounds per game are Loyola Chicago and Missouri State.

                               2 pt FG%D     3 pt FG%D      ORB/G
Loyola                    41.3%              24.4%              9.7
Missouri State        40.1%              24.7%              9.4



1,000 Point Club
The Valley now has 11 active players in the 1,000-point club. Evansville’s Abby Feit became the 21st player in program history to reach the 1,000-point mark for her career at Loyola Friday.    Feit is the fourth fastest in program to reach the milestone. 

Currently, seven of the 10 Valley programs have a 1,000 point scorer entering this week’s action.

One other player is nearing the milestone. Drake’s Maddie Petersen is sitting 38 points away from 1,000.

BU: Time for Home Stretch
After playing 10 of its last 13 games on the road, including five of the first seven MVC games, Bradley will start a home-friendly stretch this week by welcoming Valley rivals Drake (Thursday) and UNI (Saturday) to Renaissance Coliseum … The Braves will play four consecutive Valley home games (Indiana State and Evansville visit next week) for the first time since 2018 … The 4-game home stand will be the eighth home stand of at least four consecutive conference games in program history, two in the Gateway Conference and six in The Valley).

DU: Assist U
Drake continues to be one of the top assist teams in the nation, entering this week ranking 8th nationally with 18.9 assists per game. The Bulldogs have finished the last five seasons ranking top five nationally in assists per game, including leading the nation in 2020-21 and 2017-18.  The last time Drake did not finish a season ranked in the top five nationally was in 2015-16 (finished 6th). 

UE: Beyond the Arc
Evansville got its rhythm back from three against the Beacons on Sunday. For the first time since Dec. 11, the Aces shot better than 38% from deep, hitting 8 of 21 attempts (38.1%), Evansville’s fourth-best percentage from three this season.

ILS: Efficiency is Key
The Redbirds continue to lead the Valley in both field goal percentage (46.0%) and three-point field goal percentage (36.2%), ranking 16th and 22nd in the country in those categories, respectively. The ‘Birds are shooting better than both season averages so far during conference play, posting a 46.2% clip from the floor and shooting 44.4% from long range.

ISU is looking to end Drake’s streak of leading the Valley in FG% the past seven seasons.

INS: Heating Up
Indiana State guards Del’Janae Williams and Marie Hunter have taken their scoring prowess to another level in conference play. The duo rank third and fifth, respectively, in The Valley in points per game during conference play and have combined to average 31 points per game against MVC foes. Hunter ranks fifth in the conference in field goal percentage during Indiana State’s 4-1 start to Valley play (.516), while Williams ranks among the league leaders in both 3-point percentage (.333) and free throw % (.850).

LUC: That’s More Like It 
Coming off an uncharacteristic showing in a road setback at Illinois State, Loyola rounded back into form on the defensive end of the floor last Friday against Evansville in a 68-54 triumph.  The Ramblers held the visiting Purple Aces to just 29 percent from the field, marking the fourth time this season a Loyola opponent has been limited to less than 30 percent efficiency, while also forcing 16 turnovers en route to holding Evansville to its second lowest offensive output of the season.  Loyola enters the week allowing just 55.8 points per contest, a mark that ranks second in The Valley and 33rd nationally.

MSU: Holding Below
Missouri State has held 14 of its 16 opponents under their scoring average entering their games against the Lady Bears. Across all 16 games, the Lady Bears are holding opponents to an average of 17.7 points below their points per game mark entering the contest. Missouri State has held seven opponents to 20+ points below their scoring average prior to facing the Lady Bears. 

UNI: Taking Care of the Rock
The Panthers continued their stellar ways when it came to possession on Friday. UNI had just nine turnovers against Drake, making it the sixth game this season for the Panthers with single digit turnovers. UNI also leads the MVC in fewest turnovers this season with 198, averaging only 12.4 per game. 

SIU: Triple Threat
Southern Illinois currently has three of the top four scorers in The Valley in conference play this season.  Entering this week’s action, Makenzie Silvey leads the MVC, averaging 17.5 ppg, while Abby Brockmeyer sits second with a 16.7 ppg average.  Gabby Walker also checks in as the fourth leading scorer in MVC play, averaging 15.2 ppg.  

The trio is currently amassing 84.4% of the Salukis scoring output during conference games this season.

No team in Valley history has produced three of the top four scorers for an entire season. 

VU: Comeback Wins
Sunday’s win over Evansville saw Valpo overcome a 14-point first-quarter lead by the Purple Aces. It marks the 12th time in the four-year tenure of head coach Mary Evans that Valpo has rallied from down double digits to win. The Beacons previously did so this season in the win over UNI. The 14-point deficit Valpo overcame was its largest comeback win since rallying from a 14-point deficit Jan. 24, 2020 to defeat Loyola.