Aces drop 70-63 game against Panthers
CEDAR FALLS, Iowa – In a contest that went right down to the wire, the University of Evansville men’s basketball team came up just short with UNI taking a 70-63 win inside the McLeod Center on Tuesday.
For the third time in his career, Yacine Toumi scored a career-high 20 points. He hit 9 of his 16 field goal tries and tallied 6 boards, 3 assists, 2 steals and a block. Chuck Bailey III scored 14 points while Tanner Cuff was one shy of his career mark, registering 13 points. Cam Haffner scored six points, including consecutive triples in the second half that kept the Purple Aces right in the thick of the battle. Tytan Anderson and Nate Heise led the way for the Panthers with 15 points each.
“I thought the guys had the right mindset over the last two days coming into this game. The response was spot on; that is how you want to play – giving yourself an opportunity to win,†UE head men’s basketball coach David Ragland said. “This is a hard place to win, especially with the start that we had, but if you take away the opening segments of each half, it is much closer.â€
It was UNI getting the early jump, hitting three of their opening four attempts to take a 7-0 lead. Yacine Toumi took a feed from Kenny Strawbridge Jr. to score Evansville’s first points of the game. The early run for the Panthers continued as they opened an 11-2 advantage and maintained a 9-point lead, up 17-8 at the 12:11 mark.
Over the next four minutes, Evansville took control along with its first lead of the night. Scoring eight in a row while hitting four out of five attempts, Cam Haffner took it coast-to-coast and fed Toumi for the go-ahead basket with 7:49 on the clock. UE’s defense UNI to 0-for-5 with a turnover during that stretch. Seconds after the Aces jumped in front, a triple by UNI opened a 5-0 spurt.
Gage Bobe knocked down a triple to make it a 1-point game and the Aces remained within a handful of points over the ensuing stretch before Chuck Bailey III found his groove. His 3-point play got UE within a pair with 1:42 remaining and, following a Panthers miss, Tanner Cuff converted a layup to tie the game. Bailey got the job done once again in the final minute, nailing a 3-pointer to send the Aces to the break with a 31-28 lead.
Evansville had a strong finish to the half; after falling behind by an 11-2 margin, the Aces outscored UNI by a 29-17 margin over the final 15:11 of the first period.
It took just a few seconds for UNI to tie the game in the second half, converting a 3-point play in their opening possession. That would be the first of ten in a row by the Panthers to open the second half and a 38-31 lead. Strawbridge got Evansville on the board with a 3-pointer and Toumi followed with a jumper that cut the deficit back to two.
UNI went back up by eight points as the game entered its final nine minutes, holding the Aces scoreless for close to three minutes and holding a 51-43 edge. That is when Cam Haffner took matters into his own hands. Consecutive triples by the sophomore cut the gap down to two at 51-49. Cuff recorded a triple with just over six minutes remaining that made it a 54-52 game. With just under five minutes remaining, the Aces had the ball and a chance to take the lead, but a turnover led to a UNI triple on the other end. Another three by the Panthers extended the lead to 60-55 with three minutes on the clock.
Cuff connected on his fifth bucket of the contest to get UE within a possession, but each time the Aces rallied, UNI had the answer. Late free throws saw them complete the game with a 70-63 win. Evansville outshot UNI by a 44.6%-41.5% margin but it was the Panthers with the 37-30 rebounding edge.
Two home games are on the schedule for the Purple Aces when they host Illinois State at 1 p.m. Saturday before welcoming UIC on Jan. 31 in a 7 p.m. match-up.
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