Humrichous leads the way with 15 points
- LOUIS – Leading from start to finish, the University of Evansville men’s basketball team earned a 59-53 Arch Madness win over Illinois State inside the Enterprise Center. With the victory, the Purple Aces will face the #2 seed Drake on Friday evening at 6 p.m.
“As the game went on, Illinois State did not go away. It was a hard-fought game for 40 minutes. Proud of these guys for sticking together and finding a way. We did a lot of good things today to come out on top,” UE head men’s basketball coach David Ragland exclaimed. “This is the same team that started 6-0, the same special group that tripled our win total from last season and we made a decision as a group to have a ton of pride and play this game with no regrets.”
“The way we dove on the floor and got those 50/50 ball shows that we came here to win.”
Ben Humrichous was the leading scorer for UE, totaling 15 points and 11 boards. Yacine Toumi registered 10 points and 8 caroms while Antonio Thomas registered 9 points and Gage Bobe had 8. Myles Foster was the leading scorer for Illinois State, posting 18 points.
Bobe knocked down a triple to open the scoring while Yacine Toumi followed with a basket to put UE up 5-0. Illinois State registered the next three points and hung around a possession with the score sitting at 13-11 just past the midway point of the opening half.
Following two Ben Humrichous free throws, Bobe converted from downtown for the second time to put Evansville in front by an 18-11 margin. With 2:30 remaining in the half, Cam Haffner gave the Aces their largest advantage of the half at 22-13. ISU closed the gap over the final moments, cutting the UE lead to 25-21 at the break.
Antonio Thomas drained a triple to open the second-half to push the advantage to 28-21. Five in a row from the Redbirds got them right back within a possession. Humrichous converted his first triple to push the lead back to seven points before his putback gave the Aces a 37-27 lead with 13:16 left in the game.
Over the course of less than two minutes, Illinois State stormed back with seven in a row to cut the deficit to 37-34. Evansville countered with a 7-0 run of its own, holding ISU to five consecutive misses while taking a 44-34 edge. Humrichous had five during the run and would later add his third 3-pointer to make it a 47-36 game with under seven minutes remaining.
Another run by ISU saw them reel off eight in a row as they got back within three before cutting the gap to just a pair a few times, including the final minute. Three free throws in a row by Tanner Cuff and a pair from Thomas would seal the UE victory.
