Friday, March 6th, 9:35 p.m. (et).

FACTS & STATS: Site: Scottrade Center (22,612) -- St. Louis, Missouri. Television: FSN-MW. Home Record: Evansville 15-3, ISU 13-2. Away Record: Evansville 2-9, ISU 7-6. Neutral Record: Evansville 0-0, ISU 2-0. Conference Record: Evansville 8-10, ISU 11-7. Series Record: Illinois State leads, 25-13.

GAME NOTES: The quarterfinals of the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament come to an end tonight when the Evansville Purple Aces take on the Illinois State Redbirds at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis. The Purple Aces had the biggest turnaround in the MVC this season, going from 10th place in 2007-08 to a three-way tie for fifth. Evansville landed the sixth seed after the tie- breaker scenario was worked out, but the program is just 4-14 all-time in this event. The Aces are also the only current member of the conference not to have won this tourney. As for Illinois State, it dropped its final three games of the regular season costing it a shot at the conference's regular season title. Instead, the Redbirds had to settle for the third seed with their 11-7 finish. ISU owns a 32-23 mark all-time in this event and has won four titles. The Redbirds, though, haven't won it all since 1998 and came up short against Drake in the finals last year. ISU leads the head-to-head series with Evansville and has won the last five meetings in the rivalry. The winner of this game will meet either Creighton or Wichita State in the semifinals on Saturday.

For the Purple Aces, it all starts with Shy Ely, who is the MVC's leading scorer with an average of 18.3 ppg. Ely is also collecting 5.8 rpg and he has done a good job in getting to the foul line 202 times, converting at a 76.2 percent rate. Jason Holsinger is second on the team with his 12.7 ppg and he has done well to feed Ely, handing out 3.5 apg. Nate Garner chips in with 10.0 ppg and he is the team's leading rebounder at 6.2 rpg. Kaylon Williams adds just 6.0 ppg, but that is because he is busy doing everything else, racking up 4.3 rpg to go with team highs of 4.7 apg and 44 steals.

The Redbirds have plenty of weapons themselves and one of them is Champ Oguchi, who turns in 14.8 ppg and 5.8 rpg. Oguchi is also dangerous from long range, where he is making good on 37.7 percent of his attempts. Osiris Eldridge has formed a solid one-two punch with Oguchi and he logs 13.5 ppg and 6.1 rpg. Lloyd Phillips, a 43.4 percent three-point shooter, comes in with 11.1 ppg and he is also dishing out a team-high 3.9 apg. Emmanuel Holloway is yet another option at 10.3 ppg and he is shooting 38.9 percent from beyond the arc.

ISU has owned EU over the past couple of seasons and it should be able to continue that trend behind another balanced effort tonight.

Predicted Outcome

Illinois State 73, Evansville 66