Evansville moves to perfect 8-0 at home with win
EVANSVILLE, Ind. – Jaylon Brown scored a game-high 33 points to lead the University of Evansville men’s basketball team to a 68-55 win over Mount St. Joseph on Thursday evening at the Ford Center.
Brown drained 11 of his 16 shots to lead everyone and was 7-of-8 from the free throw line. Next for the Purple Aces (9-4) was Ryan Taylor, who tallied 13 points. Duane Gibson posted 12. Leading Mount St. Joseph (8-3) was Andrew Finley with 17 points.
“Give Mount St. Joseph credit, I thought they played with far more energy and executed better than we did,” UE head coach Marty Simmons said. “Our guys played harder in the beginning of the second half, but couldn’t sustain it. We are just fortunate, we were not able to execute what we practiced on either end of the floor over the last 3-4 days.”
Brown scored 22 points in the first half alone as the Aces took a 37-29 lead into the locker room. Both teams had trouble finding their groove early on, leading to a 6-5 UE lead at the 16:43 mark. The Aces got moving shortly after as a Brown jumper midway through the half gave UE a 22-12 lead.
Mount St. Joseph stayed tough as they cut the gap to two at 24-22 on a Bob Murdock trey.  That capped off a 10-2 stretch. Over the final minutes, UE was able to regain its advantage as a Gibson bucket put the Aces up 37-29 with just over a minute to play in the half.
Out of the half, UE turned it up. A 14-2 run in the opening six minutes of the stanza saw Evansville take its largest lead of the night at 51-31. The Lions made a run late, cutting the gap to 13 at the final buzzer, making it a 68-55 game.
Evansville outshot the Lions by a 47.3%-38.6% margin thanks in part to a 6-for-7 effort from Duane Gibson. The win moved UE to a perfect 8-0 record at home in non-conference play.
Missouri Valley Conference play is up next for the Purple Aces as they travel to Illinois State on December 29 for a 7 p.m. game. On January 1, UE will be home to face UNI on West Side Night in a 3 p.m. tilt.
