It wasn't pretty, but Evansville's 65-59 victory at Indiana State might become more than the Purple Aces' 10th win of the season.

The program's first road win in the Missouri Valley Conference in its last 17 tries could be a springboard to better things. Evansville, the only team in the league to return all five starters from last season, is off to its best start since the 1999-2000 season. The Purple Aces got 24 points from Shy Ely in that victory, 20 of them in the second half, which allowed them to rally from 14 down.

A win tonight against Missouri State would put UE 3-1 in the conference. That would be its best start in the league in eight years.

Evansville (10-3 overall and 2-1 in the league) and the Bears (7-7, 0-3) square off at 7:05 p.m. tonight at Roberts Stadium.

Second-year Evansville coach Marty Simmons took the wait and see approach after the win Saturday. After tonight, the Purple Aces come to Carbondale, where they have dropped seven straight games.

"Just from how we responded at Illinois State, we got beat thoroughly there, and to view the tape and come back and not get off to the great start at Indiana State," Simmons said. "But to keep our poise, and keep battling, it shoudl give us confidence that we can have success on the road, really, anywhere."

Ely, a 6-foot-4 guard/forward, moved past former teammate Kyle Anslinger and into a tie for 35th place on Evansville's career scoring list with his 24 points Saturday. Ely has hit double figures in all 13 games this season.

Jankovich not concerned with rankings: The Valley was a one-big league in the NCAA tournament last season for the first time in several years, but don't count Illinois State coach Tim Jankovich as counting the votes in the national polls.

Heading into Tuesday's first-place tilt with Bradley, Jankovich's Redbirds (14-0, 3-0) were one of four unbeaten teams in the nation. Their 14-game winning streak was tied for the best in the nation, and their most recent victory was over league favorite Creighton at home. Despite tying the school record for single-season wins last season with 25, the Redbirds were denied an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament after a 30-point loss to Drake in the MVC tournament finals.

Earlier this week, ILS received 50 votes in the ESPN/USA Today coaches poll to rank 27th. The Redbirds got 37 votes from The Associated Press and came in 36th in that list.

"I'm sure they would probably love to have that, but, from my perspective, I'd rather wait on it for a while," Jankovich said. "It'd be nicer if it was later in the year, but if it happens, it happens. Rankings are more for the excitement of the fans. Hopefully, we'll just keep plugging away, and if it happens, that'd be great."

Cox nears mark: Drake forward Jonathan Cox needs 16 points against the Sycamores tonight to become the 22nd player in Bulldog history to score 1,000 career points. With 11 rebounds, Cox will move up to a tie for 10th on the school's all-time rebounds list.

Cox is averaging more than 10 points and eight rebounds per game this season.

Holsinger, Dotzler honored: Evansville's Jason Holsinger and Creighton's Josh Dotzler have been selected as two of 30 candidates for the Lowe's Senior CLASS Award to be awarded at the end of the season.

The award goes to the top national student-athlete in eight different sports, and honors a college senior who remains committed to their universities and pursues all the rewards a senior season can bring.

todd.hefferman@thesouthern.com / 351-5087