GAME NOTES: Following losses on Tuesday in the Gulf Coast Showcase, the Evansville Purple Aces and San Francisco Dons will battle it out to determine a third-place finisher at Germain Arena.

Evansville came into the Gulf Coast Showcase with a 2-0 record and defeated Fresno State, 58-52, in the opening round to improve to 3-0. But on Tuesday, the Purple Aces were narrowly edged out by Green Bay, 64-62, after a last- second layup attempt didn't fall.

San Francisco's story is the same, as the Dons entered the Gulf Coast Showcase riding a 2-0 record with a matchup against Hawaii upcoming. Following a win over the Rainbow Warriors on the first day, San Francisco was tasked with taking on Florida Gulf Coast and lost, 62-47.

This meeting between San Francisco marks the first-ever time these two programs will battle it out on the hardwood.

Evansville enjoyed a relatively successful offensive performance against Green Bay, shooting 43.1 percent from the floor. But with time winding down and Evansville with the ball, a 3-point try with six seconds remaining didn't fall, and neither did a layup attempt after an offensive rebound. Jaylon Moore scored a team-best 13 points in the defeat for the Purple Aces, while Blake Simmons and D.J. Balentine each chipped in with 12 points. Adam Wing rounded out the team's double-digit scorers with 10 in the contest. The defense for the Purple Aces allowed Green Bay to shoot an even 50 percent from the field in the loss.

Last season's leading scorer for the Purple Aces was D.J. Balentine, and that's the way it is through four contests already this season. Balentine tops the squad with a 16.5 ppg mark, adding in 4,0 rpg and a team high-tying 15 assists. Balentine leads a group of three players that average double-figure point averages this season, as Egidijus Mockevicius (12.3 ppg) and Mislav Brzoja (11.0 ppg) fall in line right behind the junior Balentine. Evansville heads into the contest with San Francisco averaging 76.2 ppg and allowing just 52.8 ppg to opponents.

San Francisco's offense hardly showed up for the semifinal round of the Gulf Coast Classic on Tuesday. The Dons came out in the first half and shot a miserable 20.7 percent from the floor, and only increased that total to 30 percent in the second half (25.4 percent for the game). Meanwhile, Florida Gulf Coast only needed a sub-par performance from its offense (37 percent shooting) to win the game. Mark Tollefsen led the Dons with 16 points in the loss, adding seven rebounds to his resume. Montray Clemons chipped in with 10 points, and Tim Derksen grabbed a team-best 10 rebounds for San Francisco, which dropped to 3-1 following the loss.

The 47 points for San Francisco in the game was ghastly, considering the team entered the Tuesday clash averaging over 88 points per outing. The team was defeating its opponents by an average of 31.3 points in the three games leading up to Tuesday's loss. Kruize Pinkins, who scored just five points in the loss to FGCU, entered the game leading the team in scoring with an average of 20.3 ppg. Tollefsen (who went into Tuesday averaging 11.7 ppg) was the only one of three Dons players who averaged a double-digit point total going in to actually recorded at least 10 points in the defeat.

San Francisco needs to desperately try and rebound from that horrendous offensive performance if it wants a shot to beat Evansville. By last season's standards, Balentine is having a bit of a slow start to the 2014-15 campaign. The Dons better hope he doesn't return to 2013-14 form Wednesday.