Valparaiso (5-10, 1-3 MVC)
Game #16 - January 12, 2025 - 2 p.m.
at Belmont (8-7, 3-1 MVC)
Curb Event Center (5,000) - Nashville, Tenn.

Next Up in Valpo Basketball: The Valpo women's basketball team takes to the court for the last of its four consecutive road games Sunday afternoon in Nashville, Tenn. as the Beacons face Belmont. The game against the Bruins is the fourth straight for Valpo on the road against a top-100 NET team.

Previously: Continuing a challenging stretch of road games Friday evening in Murray, Ky., Valpo led host Murray State after the opening quarter before the Racers pulled away for an 82-45 victory. Nevaeh Jackson paced the Beacons with 13 points.

Following Valpo Basketball: Video: ESPN+
Links for live coverage: Available via ValpoAthletics.com

Head Coach Mary Evans: Mary Evans is in her seventh year at the helm of the program in 2024-25 and owns a record of 65-126. Evans' first six seasons at the helm have seen Valpo's six of the top-eight single-season 3-pointers made marks, including each of the top five, while defensively, her teams have racked up steals at a high rate, averaging at least 7.7 steals/game in five of her six seasons. Under her guidance, Valpo players have earned an MVC Sixth Player of the Year honor, five All-Conference accolades, three All-Freshman/Newcomer Team awards and three All-Defensive Team honors.

Series Notes: It's a brief series between the Beacons and the Racers, as the two programs did not meet prior to Belmont joining the MVC. The Bruins have claimed victories in all three meetings, including an 83-56 win at the ARC last season in the lone matchup of the year. Leah Earnest paced all players with 18 points and eight rebounds, adding a team-high five assists as well.

@ValpoWBB...
...and @ValleyHoops
- Valpo was picked to finish in eighth place in the MVC preseason poll, totaling 193 points to edge out Indiana State.
- The eighth-place projection is two spots ahead of the Beacons' regular-season finish last year.
- Valpo is in its eighth season as a member of the Missouri Valley Conference.
- The Valley was ranked 13th in conference NET last season. In Valpo's time in the MVC, the conference has been ranked as high as seventh in NET (2020-21).

...looking back at last year
- Valpo finished last season with a 5-25 overall record and finished at 4-16 in MVC play, good for 10th in the Valley standings.
- Leah Earnest was a Second Team All-MVC honoree. 
- Valpo won three consecutive road games in Valley play, the second straight year the Beacons have accomplished that - prior to that, the program had last accomplished that feat against three different opponents since 2007.

...at Murray State
- Valpo opened the game on a 7-0 run and led from start to finish in the first quarter, holding the Racers to 4-of-21 shooting over the first 10 minutes.
- The Beacons' lead was 13-9 at the end of the opening period.
- Nevaeh Jackson answered a Racer 3-pointer to open the second quarter with a triple of her own, and after five straight points for Murray State gave MSU its first lead, Layla Gold came up with a steal and fast-break layup to make it 18-17 Beacons with six minutes to play in the half.
- Murray State ended the half on a 21-5 run, including the final nine points of the quarter, to take a 38-23 lead into the locker room.
- A drive and finish from Mor Shabtai just over a minute into the third quarter was the first points for either team, bringing the Beacons back within 13. But the Racers scored the next eight in a row on their way to leading 64-36 with 10 minutes to play.
- Valpo shot just 29.6% (16-of-54) from the field Friday and was just 4-for-24 (16.7%) from 3-point range — both marks the team's worst of the season.
- On the defensive end, the Beacons held the Racers to 35.9% shooting — the second-lowest shooting percentage of the year by a Valpo D-I opponent. But Murray State was 28-of-78 from the field, earning 24 more field goal attempts as it gathered 28 offensive rebounds and scored 24 second-chance points.
- Valpo committed 23 turnovers, but did force 19 Murray State miscues as well. However, the Racers finished with a 21-7 advantage in points off turnovers.
- Jackson paced the Beacons with 13 points, including a trio of 3-pointers, and pulled down five rebounds as well.
- Gold joined Jackson in double figures as she hit 5-of-9 from the field for 11 points.

...at Drake
- Valpo led by as many as five in the first quarter, but the Bulldogs scored twice in the final 50 seconds of the opening period to lead 20-18 after the first 10 minutes.
- A coast-to-coast drive by Lexi Castator less than 90 seconds into the second quarter tied the game at 20-20. That proved to be Valpo's last point for over five minutes, however, as Drake went on a 12-0 run to push its lead into double figures.
- The Bulldogs led by as many as 16 late in the second quarter and took a 41-27 lead into halftime.
- Valpo was unable to get the deficit down to single digits in the second half, as Drake led 62-46 at the end of the third and by as many as 27 in the fourth quarter.
- Leah Earnest paced Valpo with 22 points on 10-of-17 shooting, tying her career high for field goals made. She also surpassed her career best on the defensive end, coming up with four steals.
- It was Earnest's fourth consecutive 20-point game and her sixth of the season.
- Layla Gold knocked down three 3-pointers on her way to 13 points, her fifth game scoring in double digits this season.
- The Beacons posted solid shooting numbers on Saturday, hitting 41.8% from the floor and going 8-of-22 from deep, but were unable to slow down the Bulldogs on their attempts, as Drake finished at a 50.9% clip from the field and 12-of-28 from the 3-point line.
- Valpo did force 22 Drake turnovers, 13 of which were steals — the seventh time this year the MVC leaders in turnovers forced per game forced at least 20 miscues. But despite a +4 in the turnover margin department, Valpo was outscored by Drake in points off turnovers, 23-19.

...looking ahead
- Valpo returns to the ARC for the first time since Dec. 29 Friday, Jan. 17 against Illinois State.
- The Beacons conclude their home weekend Sunday, Jan. 19 versus Bradley.

...away from home
- Friday's game is Valpo's 10th contest of the year away from home.
- The Beacons are still in search of their first true road win, as they sit at 0-7 in true road games.
- Valpo is also 1-1 in neutral site games.

@BelmontWBB
- Belmont enters Sunday's game at 8-7 overall this year and 3-1 in MVC play, including wins in each of its last two games - most recently 67-52 over UIC.
- While the Bruins suffered six losses in nonconference play, all six came against Power Four opponents - five of which are ranked in the most recent AP top-25 poll.
- Jailyn Banks leads three Bruins averaging in double figures with 13.3 points/game. Emily La Chapell averages 11.5 ppg, and Kendall Holmes adds 10.3 ppg.

Quad Talk
- The Beacons are in the midst of a challenging two-week road stretch, as they face the Valley's two toughest road swings on back-to-back weekends.
- All four games over these two weekends are against teams in the top-85 of the NET (UNI-80; Drake-86; Murray State-61; Belmont-56).
- Based on the quadrant system, the Murray State and Belmont games are Quad 1 games, while the games at UNI and Drake are Quad 2 games.
- In nonconference play, Valpo played no Quad 1 games and just one Quad 2 game (at Lehigh-94).

The Road Life
- This weekend is the second of rare back-to-back road weekends with two games apiece within MVC play, as Valpo will play four road games in 11 days.
- This is just the second time since joining the Valley Valpo has four consecutive conference road games (outside of the COVID-affected 2020-21 campaign) - but the other time had much closer trips, as the Beacons played at Indiana State and Evansville one weekend, and then at Bradley and Illinois State the next weekend in February 2023.
- Notably, after returning home the weekend of Jan. 17-19, the Beacons play their next three on the road, as seven of their first 10 conference games this year are away from home.
- On the flip side, that means Valpo closes the season with seven of its last 10 games at home.
 
Forcing Miscues
- The Beacons rank as the MVC's best at forcing miscues, averaging 20.1 turnovers/forced game through 15 games.
- The Beacons have forced more turnovers than they've committed in nine of 15 games.
- Valpo also leads the MVC with 9.9 steals/game and has tallied double-figure steals in eight games this year.
- Valpo has forced at least 20 turnovers in seven games so far, highlighted by 29 forced turnovers against Detroit Mercy and 26 in back-to-back wins over Goshen and North Dakota.
- Against Goshen, the Beacons racked up 15 steals, a season high and the team's highest total in exactly one calendar year. The Beacons matched that mark in the win over Western Michigan as well.
- In the win over North Dakota, Valpo turned the Fighting Hawks' 26 turnovers into 33 points and held a massive 33-9 edge in points off turnovers. It was the program's greatest number of points off turnovers and the highest edge in the category since a Feb. 22, 2020 win at Loyola, when Valpo forced 31 turnovers and owns a 38-4 advantage in points off turnovers.

20/20/20/20 Vision
- 14 games into the season, and Valpo has four different players with 11 combined 20-point games under their belt.
- That is already more players and more 20-point games as last year's team, which featured just two different players who combined for nine 20-point efforts.
- Leah Earnest has six such efforts: 22 points on 10-of-17 shooting at Drake, a game-high 21 points on 8-of-13 shooting at UNI, 22 points in the win over SIU, 24 points on 10-of-15 shooting versus Detroit Mercy, 23 points on 6-of-10 shooting in the win over Western Michigan and 29 points - the second-highest output of her career - at Lehigh.
- Earnest scored 20+ in four consecutive games Dec. 21-Jan. 4, the first Valpo player to do so in at least 15 years - the last time a Valpo player had scored 20+ in even three straight games was Shay Frederick in the 2020-21 campaign.
- Layla Gold joined Earnest in crossing the 20-point mark versus UDM, finishing with 21 points on 6-of-10 shooting. Earlier this year, Gold more than doubled her previous career best of 11 points with a 23-point night - which included five 3-pointers - at Milwaukee.
- Nevaeh Jackson raced past her previous career high with 26 points at Saint Louis; this coming after 20-point performances earlier in the season in the win over Goshen and against Purdue Fort Wayne.
- Against Trinity Christian, Kayla Preston smashed her previous best, going for 20 points on 7-10 FG and 6-8 FT.

Zooming Up the Charts
- Leah Earnest entered the season 14th in program history in career scoring, but has jumped all the way up to fifth all-time at Valpo with 1,355 career points.
- Earnest moved up from sixth to fifth at Drake with her final basket of the game, surpassing Meredith Hamlet and her 1,350 points.
- Next up for Earnest is Jeanette Gray in fourth with 1,460 career points.
- Earnest continued her match up the career rebounding chart against UDM, moving past Tabitha Gerardot for fourth on the program's career rebounding chart. She finished the Murray State game with 753 boards - next up there is Gray in third position with 766 career boards.
- Earnest is also second all-time at Valpo with 128 games played (13 shy of Caitlin Morrison for the program record), fourth with 291 free throws made (50 shy of third) and seventh with 489 field goals made (3 shy of sixth, 4 shy of fifth).
- Earnest impacted the program's single-game record book as well at the Christmas City Classic as she went 12-for-12 at the foul line against Lehigh. She is one of just 12 players to hit 100% from the foul line in a game (minimum 10 attempts) and one of just four to do so on at least 12 tries.

No Sophomore Slump
- After ranking fourth on the team in scoring (7.2 points/game) as a rookie, sophomore Nevaeh Jackson has cemented herself as a consistent second scorer this season.
- Jackson has nearly doubled her scoring average, entering Sunday's game second on the team with 13.7 points/game.
- Jackson has scored in double figures in 11 of 15 games, highlighted by her 26-point effort at Saint Louis.
- Jackson has improved her 2-point percentage by 80 points (.440 as a freshman, .520 to date this season) and her 3-point percentage by 43 points (.317 as a freshman, .360 to date this season) - the latter improvement coming with an increased volume of over two and a half more attempts per game from deep.

Career Highs
- Five of Valpo's seven returnees have set career bests in the scoring column this season - the only returnees who haven't are Saniya Jackson, who is out for the season, and Earnest.
- Joining the trio who had their first career 20-point efforts are senior Katie Beyer and sophomore Raeven Raye-Redmond.
- Raye-Redmond smashed past her previous best of nine with a 15-point night on 6-of-9 shooting at Milwaukee.
- Beyer hit three 3-pointers on her way to a 14-point game in the season opener versus Liberty, and then against North Dakota, surpassed that again with a 16-point effort.

All-Tournament Honors
- Valpo had a pair of players recognized as All-Tournament Team honorees following the conclusion of the Christmas City Classic.
- Leah Earnest averaged 23.5 points, 10 rebounds and 4.5 assists per game over the Beacons' two contests.
- Katie Beyer earned her selection by virtue of a strong 16-point performance, surpassing her career high, in the win over North Dakota.

Missing Pieces
- Valpo is down two starters for the remainder of the season due to injury.
- Saniya Jackson did not see any game action this year, undergoing successful knee surgery in early November.
- Raeven Raye-Redmond suffered a lower leg injury late in regulation Dec. 21 against Detroit Mercy and will miss the rest of the year as well.