On Wednesday, the University of Evansville men’s basketball team makes its final road trip of the regular season, heading north on Route 41 to Terre Haute to face Indiana State for a 6 p.m. CT game inside the Hulman Center.
Evansville has lost its last three games including a 76-66 defeat to Loyola on Sunday at the Ford Center. Junior Ryan Taylor has been on an absolute roll in the last seven games, averaging 25.6 points while pushing his season average to a league-best 21.6. His tally is 17th in the nation. Taylor has accounted for 53 of the Aces’ 107 points in the last two games and has hit 10 or more shots in six of the last seven games.
Evan Kuhlman knocked down a pair of 3-pointers in the first half on Sunday. The freshman has shot 45.0% from outside and has found the bottom of the net in 5 of his last 7 long range attempts. Senior Blake Simmons notched six points to go along with eight rebounds against Loyola. Simmons has moved his career point tally to 1,071. He currently ranks 40th in program history and is four away from tying Jerry Conrad, who is 39th.
Indiana State enters Wednesday’s game tied with the Purple Aces for 7th in the MVC with a 6-10 league mark; they are 11-17 overall. The Sycamores are coming off of a hard-fought outing that saw them drop a 76-72 overtime game to Southern Illinois on Saturday. Jordan Barnes leads ISU with 17.3 points per game and has dished out a team-high 103 assists. Brenton Scott and Qiydar Davis have recorded 15.4 and 10.5 points per game, respectively.
The Sycamores hold a 91-80 lead in the series over UE and have gone 59-23 against the Purple Aces in Terre Haute. UE has dropped its last six games in the Hulman Center, including an 85-84 overtime defeat last season.
In the first meeting on January 17, Dru Smith was the leader for UE with 23 points, but four Sycamores registered 10 or more points as ISU took a 71-66 win. Jordan Barnes had 17 to pace the team while Brenton Scott finished the night with 14. Behind Smith’s effort for UE were Blake Simmons with 16 and Ryan Taylor with 12 points.
