Men's Basketball | 11/13/2016 1:56:00 PM

Braves Conclude Season Opening Road Swing at Evansville

Alcorn Game Notes | Watch on ESPN3

EVANSVILLE, Ind. – The Alcorn State University men's basketball program will wrap-up its two-game Midwest road trip Monday evening when it takes on Evansville at 8 p.m. at the Ford Center.
 
The game will be nationally televised on ESPN3.
 
Alcorn (0-1) opened the 2016-17 campaign Friday with a 69-44 defeat to Loyola-Chicago. The Braves led 37-35 with 14:19 left in the game when the Ramblers went on a 17-0 run and never looked back. The teams were even on the glass with 32 rebounds apiece.
 
With 965 career points, senior Marquis Vance is 35 away from 1,000. Vance was the only player in the SWAC to register a double-double on opening night Friday as he tallied 12 points and 11 rebounds against Loyola-Chicago.
 
Along with Vance, senior Denzel Dulin also scored in double-figures against the Ramblers with 11 points. Senior DeAndre Davis swatted a career-high three blocks in the contest.
 
Evansville (0-1) fell to No. 13 Louisville 78-47 on Friday on the road. Senior guard Jaylon Brown led the team with 19 points.
 
The Purple Aces are coming off their best season in 27 years when they finished 25-9 last year. They made it to the conference championship game before falling to Northern Iowa. However, Evansville lost three senior starters from that squad.
 
The Braves will play the Purple Aces for the first time since Jan. 3, 1989. Alcorn is 0-2 all-time against Evansville.
 
NOTES
- Head coach Montez Robinson is in his second season at the helm. He inherited a squad that went 6-26, 4-14 SWAC in 2014-15 and more-than tripled the team's win total last season. Robinson was a finalist for both the 2016 Ben Jobe National Coach of the Year and 2016 Joe B. Hall National Coach of the Year awards.
 
- Robinson coached Alcorn to its first winning SWAC season (13-5) since 2006-07 when it went 10-8. The 13 conference wins were the most since 2001-02 when the Braves finished 20-10, 16-2 SWAC and advanced to the NCAA Tournament.
 
- Vance was named to the Preseason All-Conference Second-Team.  Vance has recorded six double-doubles over the last two seasons with 33 double-figure scoring games. His career-high is 30 points against Grambling State on Feb. 9, 2015. He's also scored at least 24 points two other times.
 
 - Vance is one of two student-athletes returning for the Braves that started at least 15 games last season along with Davis. Over the last two years, Vance has started 55 of 58 games.
 
- Alcorn is looking for its first non-conference win over a Division I school since Nov. 22, 2012 when it defeated Samford 69-65. Prior to that, the Braves beat Jacksonville State 70-68 on Dec. 13, 2003 and UTEP 67-53 on Nov. 26, 2002.
 
- Davis finished third in the SWAC in both field goal percentage (.584) and offensive rebounding (2.5 orpg) last season.
 
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