Fifth-year senior Brody Whitaker (Greencastle, Ind. / Greencastle [University of Indianapolis / Marian]) hit a go-ahead jumper with three seconds remaining in a game Valpo trailed by seven with under four minutes to play, but Saturday belonged to Evansville's AJ Casey. The Purple Aces had to go the length of the court with just three ticks on the clock, but Casey beat the buzzer with a 3-pointer to complete a 37-point performance and lift the hosts to an 80-79 win over the Beacons in the regular-season finale.
 
How It Happened

• Valpo jumped out to an early 14-8 lead with 14:35 left in the first half. The Beacons hit six out of seven shots, including a big burst from Owen Dease (Evansville, Ind. / Evansville Reitz [Texas A&M Corpus Christi]), who scored 10 of the team's first 12 points.
• After an early eight-point Valpo lead, Evansville tied the game with an 8-0 run to make it 14-all at the under-12 media timeout of the first half. Valpo went 3:42 without scoring.
• It remained tight as Justis McNair (Joliet, Ill. / Joliet West) hit a 3 to build the lead to six with nine minutes left in the first half, but UE's Leif Moeller responded with a 3 of his own. Valpo led 23-21 at the under-8 media timeout.
• Freshman Rakim Chaney (Rockford, Ill. / Rockford Auburn [212 Sports Academy]) hit a big 3 at the 3:36 mark to put Valpo up five, then Whitaker knocked down the team's eighth triple of the half to make it a 37-31 lead with 2:50 left in the half.
• Chaney was fouled just before the halftime horn and made two free throws to send the Beacons into the break with a 42-34 lead behind 13 points on 4-of-7 shooting from the rookie. Fellow freshman JT Pettigrew (Lisle, Ill. / Bolingbrook) did not play in the final 11 minutes of the half after he picked up his second foul. Pettigrew had four rebounds in just six minutes of first-half action.
• Evansville outscored Valpo 13-8 in an early stretch of the second half, as Casey remained on fire, upping his game total to 22 points with over 16 minutes remaining.
• The hosts tied the game at 50 on a 3 by Joshua Hughes with 15:27 left in the first half, then took the lead on another trey with 14:32 to go. It continued to go back-and-forth, and McNair hit a needed 15-footer with 11:23 on the clock to cut the UE lead to one.
• Evansville used an 8-0 run and built up an eight-point lead past the midway mark of the second half.
• Dease nailed a key 3 to slim the lead to four at 68-64 with 5:37 to play.
• Valpo clawed to within one when McNair hit two free throws with 2:23 left, and tied the game on a second-chance bucket by Pettigrew with 1:37 to play. Pettigrew was fouled on that game-tying basket and went to the line to give Valpo a 75-74 lead by completing the 3-point play.  
• McNair made two more free throws to put Valpo up three at 77-74, then Casey hit his first of two late 3s with 20 seconds left to tie the game at 77.
• Valpo held for a last-second look and Whitaker knocked in the go-ahead jumper with three seconds to play, the second straight game Valpo hit a go-ahead shot in the closing seconds, before Casey won it following Evansville's final timeout.

Inside the Game

• Valpo had four players in double figures, led by 17 from the Evansville native, Dease, who had his highest scoring output since 18 on Feb. 6, also against the Purple Aces.
• Pettigrew, who shared the team lead with Dease, scored 15 of his 17 points after halftime after being limited by first-half foul trouble. He scored in double figures for the seventh straight game and had at least five rebounds for the 11^th straight game, finishing with six boards.
• Chaney tallied double figures for the fourth straight game, finishing with 13 points. He handed out five assists to lead the team.
• Whitaker was in double figures for the sixth time in his last seven games, finishing with 12.
• Evansville made its first 20 free throws of the game and went 21-of-22. Valpo was 24-of-28 at the stripe for 85.7 percent. That free-throw percentage was Valpo's best since Nov. 29 vs. Western Michigan and the 24 makes were the team's most since 26 on Jan. 7 vs. Illinois State.
• Casey's 37 points were the most by a Valpo opponent since Mercer's Jake Collon had 37 in a triple overtime game on Nov. 29, 2013 and the most by a Valpo opponent in a regulation game since Oakland's Reggie Hamilton had 41 on Dec. 17, 2011.
• Valpo made nine 3s, shooting at a 42.9 percent clip. This marked the team's fourth time in the last five games shooting above 40 percent from 3.
• This represented the 103^rd all-time matchup between these two teams, moving Evansville into a tie with Butler as Valpo's all-time most common opponent.
• Pettigrew's 17 points helped him continue to climb Valpo's freshman scoring list, as he now ranks sixth in program history for points by a freshman with 375, surpassing Javon Freeman-Liberty's 2018-19 campaign (364).
• Valpo continued to play close games as 11 of the team's final 12 regular-season contests were decided by single figures. In league play, 18 of Valpo's 20 games were decided by 10 points or fewer. Valpo dropped to 1-2 in one-point games with a win over Indiana State and losses to Belmont and Evansville.
• Valpo led for 24 minutes, 57 seconds, while Evansville led for 11 minutes, 41 seconds. The Aces led by as many as eight with 9:09 to go and the Beacons led by as many as nine with 40 seconds left in the first half.

Up Next
Valpo (17-14, 11-9 MVC) will compete in Arch Madness, the State Farm MVC Tournament in St. Louis, this coming week beginning on Thursday. The bracket and schedule information will be announced after Sunday's MVC docket.