Aces shoot lights out in 88-56 win over Alabama State

A 10-0 run to start the game helped the University of Evansville men’s basketball team cruise to an 88-56 victory over Alabama State on Tuesday night at the Ford Center.

D.J. Balentine, who scored a game-high 26 points, scored five of those ten while either scoring or assisting on the first 11 buckets of the night for the Purple Aces (6-1).  The senior was 10-of-13 from the field, hit four of his five triples and dished out eight assists.  He has recorded four or more assists in all seven games this season.

“Give our guys credit, they had one day to prepare and came out sharp,” head coach Marty Simmons said.  “We were ready to go and got off to a good start and were able to sustain it.  When we pass the ball and are unselfish like tonight, we are a fun team to watch.”

Evansville finished the night shooting 68.6% and was credited with 26 assists.  Eight of those came from Balentine while Jaylon Brown had 5 and Blake Simmons notched four.  Egidijus Mockevicius recorded his fifth double-double of the season, finishing with 12 points and 11 rebounds on a 5-for-7 shooting night.

Adam Wing shot a perfect 6-6 to tally 12 points while Brown hit all three shots and four free throws to register 10.  Simmons had nine while David Howard checked in with 7.  Willie Wiley had his best game of the season, seeing 14 minutes of action and notching five points and four boards.

“We came out and played sharp; Coach Simmons had us ready to play,” Brown said.  “We wanted to start on the defensive end and turn that into offense.”

Pacing Alabama State (2-4) was Corvon Butler.  He hit six of his 11 attempts to lead the Hornets with 13 points.

A first half that featured 20 points from D.J. Balentine and the Aces shooting 78.6% as a team saw UE take a 55-22 lead at the half.  Evansville scored the first 10 points of the game before Jamel Waters hit a trey for ASU just over three minutes in.  That is as close as the Hornets would get for the remainder of the contest.

Mockevicius hit a layup just a minute later to reestablish the 10-point advantage and UE rolled from there.  At the 12:45 mark, Balentine drained his second 3-pointer of the game to put Evansville up 26-6.  UE led by as many as 35 in the final minute on a Harris Brown free throw before Butler hit a shot for the Hornets to make it a 55-22 game at the break.

It was the same story in the second half was the lead went as high as 43 as UE opened the half on a 10-0 run in the first four minutes.  The Aces had another solid half of shooting, knocking down 13 of their 23 second-half shots to finish the game at 68.6%.

Included in the latter half was a monster slam by Sergej Vucetic that brought the crowd to its feet.  Balentine commented on what the moment meant for the team.

“Everyone on our team works so hard and we were so excited for him to have that moment,” Balentine explained.  “He did well when he was in there.  Sergej is really well-liked by the crowd, so we were happy for him and the other guys to get a lot of minutes.”

With its sixth win of the season under its belt, the Aces head south to face Murray State on Saturday evening.  Game time is set for 7:30 p.m. in Murray, Ky.