UE holds Valpo to 18 second-half points
Four University of Evansville men’s basketball players reached double figures in an exciting comeback that saw the Purple Aces overcome a 16-point first half deficit to defeat Valparaiso by a final of 58-51 on Monday night at the Ford Center.
A 19-4 stretch in the first half saw Valparaiso (6-11, 3-5 MVC) open up a 28-12 lead. Evansville (8-8, 6-4 MVC) was able to cut that deficit to nine points at halftime before holding the Crusaders to just 18 second-half points on the way to a 7-point win. Jawaun Newton and Shamar Givance scored 12 points apiece. Newton was an efficient 6-for-8 from the field while Givance was credited with 5 assists and 5 rebounds. Jax Levitch was a perfect 3-for-3 from long range on his way to 11 tallies while Noah Frederking finished with 10 points, all coming in the second half.
“Valparaiso was generating good shots in the first half and they were able to make them. I thought we needed to tighten up defensively and make it more difficult for them,†Aces head coach Todd Lickliter said. “Our guys made a concerted effort to change that and I thought we defended it better and the stats show that. We also got some poise and moved the ball a little more.â€
Valparaiso had the upper hand at the start, jumping out to a 7-2 lead with the Aces converting just one of its first six attempts. Jax Levitch got UE back on track with a 3-pointer to make it a 7-5 game. After a triple by Shamar Givance made it a 9-8 game in favor of the Crusaders, neither team scored for a span of nearly four minutes.
That changed when Daniel Sackey scored five in a row inside of the 12-minute mark. His baskets sent the Crusaders on a 19-4 stretch that saw them open up a 28-12 lead with 5:35 left in the half. They hit seven out of eight attempts in the run while the Aces went cold, hitting two out of seven tries while turning it over five times.
Facing the deficit, the Aces made their way back in the final minutes of the half, chopping off seven points to head to the break trailing by a score of 33-24. In the final minute, a 3-point play by Givance cut the deficit to 11 before Jawaun Newton converted a jumper at the buzzer to get his team back within nine. The El Paso native hit 4 of his 5 attempts in the opening half.
UE continued to close the gap as the second half got under way when triples by Evan Kuhlman and Levitch made it a 37-32 game at the 16:25 mark. A few minutes later, a tip-in by Noah Frederking got Evansville back within a possession at 39-36. Junior Iyen Enaruna had a stretch that got UE within one thanks to a triple before his 3-point play gave Evansville its first lead at 47-45 with five minutes remaining.
Valparaiso quickly tied it up, but with the score knotted at 49-49, the Aces buckled down on every possession to take control of the game. Newton started what would be a 7-0 run with a layup with 3:10 remaining before a Givance steal turned into a 3-pointer by Noah Frederking. Following a Valpo miss, it was Givance connecting on a driving layup to push the lead to seven. The Crusaders got back within five thanks to a Donovan Clay dunk in the final minute, but a pair of Frederking free throws put the game on ice and helped the Aces finalize the 58-51 win.
It was Clay leading the way for the Crusaders with 14 points. He was 7-for-14 from the field. In the first half, VU shot 54.2%, but UE’s defense clamped down in the final 20 minutes, holding them to 18 points on 9-of-24 shooting (37.5%). Valpo was 5-for-8 from outside in the first half, but 0-for-5 in the second. They shot 45.8% on the night with UE finishing at 44.2%. The rebounding battle went Evansville’s way by a 34-24 final.
With the win, the Aces improved to 6-4 in the MVC and 5-1 at home in league games. With the weekend sweep, UE is over the .500 mark in the MVC at this point in the season for the first time since 2016.
Up next for UE is a series at Loyola. The Aces and Ramblers tangle on Saturday, Feb. 6 and Sunday, Feb. 7 with each game set to begin at 1 p.m. inside Gentile Arena.
