Big second half lifts Bears to win over Aces

UE back home Wednesday to face Drake

Senior K.J. Riley had his best outing since November, tallying 22 points on Saturday with the University of Evansville men’s basketball team falling by a 68-58 final to Missouri State inside the Ford Center.

Riley was a perfect 6-for-6 from the line and hit 7 of his 14 field goal attempts.  Sam Cunliffe finished the day with 11 points.  John Hall, Artur Labinowicz and Jawaun Newton led Evansville (9-10, 0-6 MVC) with five rebounds apiece.  The duo of Isiaih Mosley and Keandre Cook were the top performers for the Bears (9-10, 3-3 MVC), recording 23 and 19 points, respectively.  Mosley led all players with 10 field goal makes and a total of eight boards.

In Saturday’s contest, the Aces outscored the Bears by a 35-30 tally in the first half while posting eight assists against three turnovers.  The final 20 minutes saw UE get outscored by a 38-23 tally while registering two assists and turning it over 10 times.  The December 31 meeting in Springfield was a similar outing with UE having a 31-23 edge in the first half before MSU outscored Evansville by a 42-21 tally in the latter half.

“We did a really good job of sharing the basketball in the first half but got away from that in the second.  We have to continue to work and that is exactly what we will do going forward,” Aces interim head coach Bennie Seltzer said.  “What we are preaching as a staff is if you are open, knock it down.  Our shots are just not falling; that is not an excuse, but they are just not falling right now.”

Evansville had a solid first half, shooting 43.3% on its way to a 35-30 lead at the half.  K.J. Riley posted 17 points in the opening stanza while hitting all six free throws.  After the teams swapped triples to start the game, UE utilized a 6-of-8 shooting start to take a 14-9 advantage in the opening six minutes.

Missouri State rallied back to take a 17-16 lead on a triple from Isiaih Mosley before the Aces retook the lead for the remainder of the period.  Sam Cunliffe found Evan Kuhlman open under the basket to put the lead back in the Aces hands.  Up by a pair, Riley was fouled on a 3-point try and converted all three attempts to push the lead to 26-21.

With 17 seconds on the clock, Riley knocked down his fifth basket of the game and hit the ensuing free throw attempts to make it a 35-28 game before an MSU basket at the buzzer cut the lead to 35-30 at the break.

Riley opened the second half just as he did in the first half, connecting on another bucket to make it a 7-point game.  That is when the Bears kicked it into high gear, holding UE scoreless for a stretch of five minutes while their offense ran off eight points in a row to retake a 38-37 edge.  Cunliffe had a 4-point stretch on his own to put Evansville back on top, but the rally for MSU continued.  They outscored the Aces by an 18-4 margin to go up by a 48-41 margin.

A huge basket at the midway point of the half saw Shamar Givance drain a triple before a Jawaun Newton layup got the Aces within two (48-46) at the 9:40 mark.  Missouri State countered with a 5-0 rally of their own before Marcus Henderson hit his first triple of the game to cut the gap to four at 53-49.  With just under four minutes left, the Bear lead reached nine before Henderson’s second trey got Evansville back within six at 60-54.  The Bears fended off the Aces over the final minutes and finished with the 68-58 win.

“In the first half, they had a hard time of guarding our offense.  In the second half, they switched stuff up and would not allow us to kick it out and get into our lanes,” UE junior Sam Cunliffe said.  “We need to do a better job of making adjustments.”

Cunliffe came off the bench on Saturday with Newton and Noah Frederking making the start.  Coach Seltzer explained the move after the game.

“I was looking at defense.  Those guys (Jawaun/Noah) played really well together at Indiana State and I wanted to have them on the floor to start the game,” Seltzer explained.  “With Sam and Shamar coming in off the bench, that gave us some offensive firepower to change the tempo.”

The Bears defense held the Aces to 38.6% shooting while their offense shot 47.3% including an even 50% in the second half.  Both teams totaled 33 rebounds.

Evansville has its sights set on another home game on Wednesday with Drake coming to the Ford Center for a 6 p.m. game.