Valparaiso (5-9, 1-2 MVC)
Game #15 - January 10, 2025 - 6 p.m.
at Murray State (8-4, 2-1 MVC)
CFSB Center (8,600) - Murray, Ky.

Next Up in Valpo Basketball: The Valpo women's basketball team takes to the road for a second consecutive weekend, this time for the Valley's southern road swing, starting with a 6 p.m. tip Friday evening at Murray State. The game against the Racers is the third of four consecutive road games for the Beacons against top-100 NET teams.

Previously: The second quarter proved to be the difference for Valpo on Saturday afternoon in Des Moines, Iowa, as despite playing right with host Drake for the other three quarters, a 12-point deficit in the second stanza proved to be too much to overcome in an 82-64 loss. Leah Earnest moved into fifth place in program history in career scoring in the defeat.

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 65-125. 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 Murray State joining the MVC. The Racers have claimed victories in all three meetings, including a 90-62 win in Murray last season in the lone matchup of the year. Leah Earnest led all players in that game with 17 points and nine rebounds.

@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 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.

...at UNI
- Valpo got out to a quick start, as Mor Shabtai, Nevaeh Jackson and Leah Earnest each connected on a 3-pointer within the Beacons' first four possessions to give them a 9-4 lead just over two minutes in.
- UNI outscored Valpo 19-4 over the remainder of the opening period to lead 23-13 at the end of one.
- A triple by Earnest and a fast-break layup by Jackson gave the Beacons the first five points of the second quarter, forcing a UNI timeout with the deficit cut to 23-18 and 8:33 to play in the half.
- After the teams traded baskets out of the stoppage, the Panthers went on a 14-2 run over the next four minutes to pull out to a 39-22 lead. UNI's lead reached as many as 21 late in the half and was 50-30 at intermission.
- Valpo cut UNI's lead to 16 multiple times in the third quarter, but was unable to get any closer, and the Panthers went on a late run to close the quarter with a 75-51 lead.
- UNI's advantage remained in the 20-point range throughout the fourth quarter.
- Earnest led all players with 21 points, finishing the game 8-of-13 from the field, and also paced the Beacons with six rebounds.
- Jackson backed up Earnest with a 16-point night, connecting on 7-of-12 from the floor.
- The aforementioned duo was the only Valpo players to reach double figures, though, as the Beacons' next leading scorer was Lexi Castator, who hit 3-of-4 from the field for eight points — just one off her season high.
- Maci Rhoades set a career best with a team-high four assists.
- The Beacons posted a 48.2% field goal percentage Thursday, hitting 27-of-56 for their second-best effort against a D-I opponent this year. But UNI bettered that with a 56.4% clip from the floor and took advantage of 21 more free throw attempts, hitting 25-of-35 from the stripe to Valpo's 9-of-14.
- Valpo also lost the turnover battle by its highest margin of the year, committing 23 turnovers which the Panthers scored 28 points off. Meanwhile, the Beacons forced just 14 turnovers — their second-lowest total of the season — and scored just 12 points off turnovers.

...looking ahead
- The Beacons close out this challenging stretch of road games on Sunday afternoon at Belmont.
- Valpo returns to the ARC for the first time since Dec. 29 next Friday, Jan. 17 against Illinois State.

...away from home
- Friday's game is Valpo's ninth contest of the year away from home.
- The Beacons are still in search of their first true road win, as they sit at 0-6 in true road games.
- Valpo is also 1-1 in neutral site games.

@RacersWBB
- Murray State enters Friday's game with an 8-4 overall record this year and is 2-1 in MVC play, falling at Missouri State last time out after Valley wins over Illinois State and Southern Illinois.
- The Racers lead the Valley and rank sixth nationally, averaging 89.4 points/game. They also rank second nationally in 3-pointers made, averaging 11.0 triples/game.
- Katelyn Young paces four MSU players who average in double figures with 18.4 points/game on 51.5% shooting from the field.

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-67; Drake-82; Murray State-66; Belmont-58).
- Based on the quadrant system, the UNI, Murray State and Belmont games are Quad 1 games, while the game at Drake is a Quad 2 game.
- 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 14 games.
- The Beacons have forced more turnovers than they've committed in nine of 14 games.
- Valpo also leads the MVC with 10.2 steals/game and has tallied double-figure steals in eight games this year, including seven of the last 10.
- 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 last time out 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 has scored 20 or more points 16 times in her collegiate career.
- 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.

Four, Count Them, Four
- Four of Earnest's six 20-point games have come in Valpo's last four games, including the Beacons' first three MVC contests.
- Earnest is one of two Valley players to score at least 20 points in each of her team's first three MVC games, as Murray State's Katelyn Young has as well.
- Earnest is the first Valpo player in at least 15 seasons to score 20 or more in four consecutive games.
- Prior to this current stretch, Earnest had never even had a stretch of three consecutive games with 20+ points.
- The last Valpo player prior to Earnest's current stretch with three straight 20+ point games was Shay Frederick, who dropped 27 at Wisconsin Dec. 20, 2020 and then 20 and 26 on back-to-back nights versus UNI Jan. 7 & 8, 2021.

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 1,351 career points.
- Earnest moved up from sixth to fifth last time out 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 Drake game with 747 boards - next up there is Gray in third position with 766 career boards.
- Earnest is also second all-time at Valpo with 127 games played (14 shy of Caitlin Morrison for the program record), fourth with 289 free throws made (52 shy of third) and seventh with 488 field goals made (moved past Amber Schober at UNI; 4 shy of sixth, 5 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 Friday's game second on the team with 13.7 points/game.
- Jackson has scored in double figures in 10 of 14 games, highlighted by her 26-point effort at Saint Louis.
- Jackson has improved her 2-point percentage by 94 points (.440 as a freshman, .534 to date this season) and her 3-point percentage by 42 points (.317 as a freshman, .359 to date this season) - the latter improvement coming with an increased volume of nearly 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.