Givance, Evansville top Valparaiso 70-52 in 1st game back

EVANSVILLE, Ind. (AP) — Shamar Givance had 19 points as Evansville ran past Valparaiso 70-52 on Sunday, playing for the first time in two weeks.

The Purple Aces were coming off a pause for COVID-19 exposure while Valparaiso had played a double-overtime game on Thursday.

Samari Curtis and Jawaun Newton added 17 points each for the Purple Aces. Newton also had eight rebounds.

Evansville (7-8, 5-4 Missouri Valley Conference) scored a season-best 37 first-half points to lead by 10 at the break.

Ben Krikke had 18 points for the Crusaders (6-10, 3-4). Eron Gordon added 13 points.

Donovan Clay, the Crusaders second-leading scorer at 12 ppg, shot 1 of 7 for three points.

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Elements of this story were generated by Automated Insights, http://www.automatedinsights.com/ap, using data from STATS LLC, https://www.stats.com