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It's been eight years since the Purple Aces' men's basketball team has won at Southern Illinois. We'll find out if eight is enough Saturday night, when the Aces (11-3, 3-1) and Salukis (6-9, 1-3) battle at SIU Arena at 7:05. Plenty of good seats in the Evansville section will be on sale one hour before tip-off at SIU Arena.

THE TOP 10 THINGS TO KNOW...UE VS. SOUTHERN ILLINOIS JAN. 10

1. Only Indiana State (148 games) and Butler (114) have played the Aces more often than Southern Illinois. Saturday’s game will be the 107th in a series that Southern Illinois leads 60-46. The Salukis have won three in a row over Evansville, and 19 of the last 22 dating back 10 years. The only three UE wins in the last 22 games came Feb. 24, 2001 at Carbondale, Feb. 21, 2006 at Evansville and Jan. 17, 2007 at Evansville.

2. The Aces will try to break a seven-year losing streak in Carbondale on Saturday, after breaking a 16-game road losing streak to Missouri Valley Conference opponents last Sunday at Indiana State. The last time UE won two in a row on the road against league foes was the MVC championship season of 1998-99.

3. Now 11-3, the Aces are off to their best start since the 1999-2000 squad was 13-3. They’ve already won two more than last season’s 9-21 team.

4. Wednesday’s win over Missouri State puts the Aces at 3-1 in the MVC, matching last season’s entire victory total in league play. The 3-1 start is Evansville’s best since 2000-01. UE was 4-1 in MVC play most recently in 1999-2000.

5. Evansville is 10-0 at home for the first time since the 1999-2000 team won its first 10 at Roberts Stadium. The Aces will go for 11 straight at home Tuesday when they host Northern Iowa to begin a three-game homestand. The last time UE won its first 11 home games was 1988-89, when the Aces won all 15 at Roberts on their way to making the NCAA Tourney.

6. Shy Ely’s streak of double-figure scoring ended at 13 Wednesday when Missouri State held him to nine. He is second in the MVC in scoring at 17.2, trailing Josh Young of Drake (17.5). Ely has scored 30 percent of his points at the free throw line. He has eight or more free throw attempts in each of his last five games.

7. In MVC games, freshman guard Kaylon Williams is averaging seven assists and seven rebounds per game. He’s second in the league in assists behind Bryan Mullins of Southern Illinois, and third in assist-to-turnover ratio behind Mullins and Josh Dotzler of Creighton.

8. Jason Holsinger became Evansville’s career leader in three-point field goals Wednesday with the 250th and 251st of his career. He moved past Kent Williams of Southern Illinois and Marcus Wilson of UE on the MVC career chart, where he is now eighth. Fifteen more three-pointers will put Holsinger in the MVC’s top five.

9. Marty Simmons was the eighth leading vote-getter Thursday in the mid-season poll for the Hugh Durham Award. Named after the legendary Georgia and Jacksonville coach, the Durham Award is given annually by CollegeInsider.com to the top mid-major coach in America. Drake’s Keno Davis (now at Providence) won the award last year.

10. Here’s a look at UE’s top-5 ranked players in MVC stat categories going into Saturday’s game: Scoring: 2. Shy Ely (17.2); Assists: 2. Kaylon Williams (4.6); Assist-To-Turnover Ratio: 3. Kaylon Williams (2.0); Minutes Played: 3. Shy Ely (33.8).

For a complete look at the game notes, click on the SIU Game Notes on the men's basketball page here at GoPurpleAces.com.