Aces head to Mexico this week
University of Evansville junior posted 27 points and Dru Smith tallied 11 as the Purple Aces men’s basketball team improved its record to 4-0 with a 66-61 victory over Binghamton inside the Ford Center on Saturday afternoon.
Taylor went 10-of-22 from the field and hit seven 3-pointers in 37 minutes of work. Smith went 5-9 from the floor and registered nine more assists. Over his last three outings, the sophomore has dished out 29 helpers. Dainius Chatkevicius had a solid game, finishing with seven points and six rebounds while Dalen Traore was the top rebounder for UE (4-0) with seven.
“This is a good win. We were thrown into some different situations because of illness and injury, but I like the way our guys stayed with it and just went onto the next play,” UE head coach Marty Simmons said. “I give our guys credit, we made some adjustments and they executed pretty well.”
J.C. Show was the leader of the pack for the Bearcats (1-3) as he knocked down six from outside on his way to 27 points. Everson Davis notched 12 points while Thomas Bruce finished with 11.
“We knew that Bruce was pretty athletic. He made some pretty good plays out there. We also knew that Show is a really good shooter. We let them get hot in the second half,” Taylor said. “With Boo out, we had some guys really step up. Noah did a great job, all of our guys stepped up.”
Taylor hit four triples on his way to 14 points in the opening half as the Purple Aces led by a 36-24 margin at halftime. After the Bearcats scored the first bucket of the game, the Aces held them to just one of their next 11 attempts as UE jumped out to a 20-5 lead.
In that stretch, Taylor had a pair of triples that made the difference. Binghamton notched its second basket as the 7:24 mark of the half as a Thomas Bruce jumper cut the gap to 20-7.  A pair of free throws with 18 ticks remaining in the stanza by Blake Simmons put the lead back up to 15 at 36-21, but at the buzzer, J.C. Show hit a long trey that made it a 36-24 contest at the break.
Binghamton’s run continued into the second half as they reeled off the first seven points to cut the gap to just five. A 3-pointer from Everson Davis coupled with a bucket from Bruce made it a 36-31 game with 16:39 remaining.
Out of a time out, Dru Smith found Taylor for an alley-oop for the Aces first bucket of the half before the lead went back up to ten at 51-41 when K.J. Riley knocked down a pair of free throws with 7:53 remaining. Over the next four minutes, Binghamton outscored Evansville, 10-2, as they made it a 53-51 game with just over four minutes on the clock. Show had triples on consecutive possessions to cap off the rally.
Following a time out, it was Taylor who got the Aces back in the right direction, hitting a floater to make it a 4-point game. On the ensuing possession, an and-one by BU cut the Aces advantage to just one at 55-54. Taylor’s clutch play continued on the next trip down the floor as an open three made it a two possession game once again.
A huge play was made on the next Aces possession by freshman Noah Frederking. He put back a Taylor miss to put the squad up by a 60-54 margin and the Aces were able to hang on from there, winning by a final of 66-61.
With the win, UE improved to 4-0 for the first time since the 2013-14 campaign and just the second time since 1987.
Evansville continues the Cancun Challenge in Mexico this week as the team will face Fresno State on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. CT before taking on either George Mason or Louisiana Tech on Wednesday. Both games will be carried on the CBS Sports Network.
