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The Loyola Chicago Ramblers basketball team will host the Evansville Purple Aces in Missouri Valley Conference play on Saturday.
The game (4 p.m. ET start time) won’t be on TV anywhere, but you can watch it live on ESPN+:
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Once signed up for ESPN+, you can then watch Evansville vs Loyola Chicago live on your computer via ESPN.com, or on your phone (Android and iPhone compatible), tablet, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Chromecast, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, or other streaming device via the ESPN app.
Evansville vs Loyola Chicago Preview
The Ramblers had won seven of eight before they fell to the Drake Bulldogs 65-62 on the road on Tuesday, slipping to 10-6 on the season and 2-1 in conference action.
Loyola Chicago center Cameron Krutwig scored 14 points, pulled down 7 rebounds, dished 4 assists, and came up with a trio of steals and a block.
The MVC preseason player of the year ranks second in the conference in field-goal percentage (58.8%) and rebounds per game (8.1), fifth in points per game (16.3), and fourth in assists per game (4.3).
On Dec. 18, he notched his first career triple-double (22 points, 10 rebounds, 10 assists) to lead the Ramblers to a neutral-site victory over the Vanderbilt Commodores.
“He’s just a unicorn, you know,” Loyola Chicago head coach Porter Moser said after the Vanderbilt win, according to Mid-Major Madness. “He’s an old-school big-man who can pass, shoot, has very [high] IQ. He’s not an above-the-rim player. He just knows how to play the game.”
The junior averaged 2.1 assists per game across his first two seasons at Loyola Chicago.
“We run a lot of good stuff,” Krutwig said, per Mid-Major Madness. “As you can see, we have a lot of guys back-cutting and stuff. I’ve kind of always just had the mindset to distribute the ball from the high post area.”
Evansville won eight of their first 11 games, a stretch that included a 67-64 victory over the then-No. 1 Kentucky Wildcats at Rupp Arena back on Nov. 12. But they’ve lost four of five since their hot start, including their last three.
On Wednesday, the Purple Aces fell to the Bradley Braves 72-52 at home to drop to 0-3 in MVC play. They put up just 19 points in the first half, a season low.
“We can’t let our offense determine how hard we play on defense,” Evansville interim head coach Bennie Seltzer said, according to the Evansville Courier & Press. “Once we get that into our minds, we’ll be a much better team and I think we’re going to take off.”
Evansville guard K.J. Riley scored a team-high 12 points to go with 5 rebounds, 3 assists, and a block. The team shot just 16-of-48 (33.3%) from the field.
The Purple Aces’ three-game losing streak has coincided with Walter McCarty’s absence. The head coach is on administrative leave while the school investigates an alleged Title IX violation.
“I think we get too down on ourselves when we miss a couple of shots and it just affects our whole game,” Purples Aces guard Jawaun Newton said, per the Evansville Courier & Press. “Us as a team, we don’t want to do anything when we’re not making shots and we have to change that.”