Evansville, In.: In a fantastic bounce-back performance, the Thunderbolts turned the tables on Quad City, shutting them out 3-0 on Saturday night at Ford Center as goaltender Trevor Gorsuch became the first goaltender in franchise history to earn a shutout in his Thunderbolts debut.  The Thunderbolts’ next home game will be on Saturday, December 10^th against the Vermilion County Bobcats at 7:00pm CT.  For tickets, call (812)422-BOLT (2658), go to EvansvilleThunderbolts.com, or visit the Ford Center Ticket Office.

Mathieu Cloutier started the scoring at 6:27 of the first period, scoring on the rebound from Cameron Cook and Chris Jones to put Evansville in front 1-0.  Late in the second period, Scott Kirton scored off a Storm giveaway to make it 2-0 with his unassisted goal at 18:09. Kirton scored once again only 3:52 into the third period, this time assisted by Mike Ferraro and Roshen Jaswal to make it 3-0.  The Storm outshot Evansville the rest of the way, but Gorsuch stood tall and stopped every shot that came his way as the Thunderbolts picked up the split of the two-game set against Quad City.

Kirton scored two goals, while Cloutier scored one goal.  Gorsuch stopped al 33 shots faced in net for his 1^st win and shutout of the season.  These two teams meet again on December 17^th at Ford Center.

Non-conference play resumes on Wednesday

 CEDAR FALLS, Iowa – Down by 18 points at halftime, the University of Evansville men’s basketball team closed the gap to six points before Northern Iowa fended off the challenge to take a 72-55 win on Saturday at the McLeod Center.

Trailing by an 18-4 margin to open the game, UE went to halftime trailing 38-20 but stormed back in the second half.  Evansville cut the deficit to as few as six tallies in the second half before Northern Iowa finished with the win.  The Purple Aces outscored the Panthers by a 35-34 margin in the second half.

“UNI came out on fire and hit their first six shots, they were ready to go and hit some good shots,” Aces head coach David Ragland said.  “We responded very well but we have to be ready to go from the tip.  At halftime, we made some adjustments to get us in better positions and it helped us.”

Scoring 17 points, Kenny Strawbridge Jr. led the Purple Aces on the scoresheet.  He was 6-of-15 from the field while tallying five rebounds.  Antoine Smith Jr. scored 10 points and grabbed five boards.  Marvin Coleman II paced the team with seven caroms.  The leading scorer in the contest was Bowen Born of UNI.  He scored 29 points, including 22 in the first half alone.  He was 10-of-21 from the field and drained five 3-pointers.  Tytan Anderson scored 19 while posting a game-high nine rebounds.

Converting their opening six field goal attempts, the Panthers jumped out to a 16-4 lead in the first three minutes of the game.  Sekou Kalle got the Aces on the board to tie it at 2-2 before UNI heated up from outside with four triples finding the bottom of the net.  The Panthers pushed the lead to 18-4 to open the game with Kenny Strawbridge Jr. hitting a jumper to halt the run.

Inside of the 7-minute mark of the first half, Strawbridge hit a triple and Marvin Coleman II followed with a layup that got Evansville within single digits (27-18), but the final minutes of the period saw UNI outscore the Aces by an 11-2 margin to lead 38-20 at halftime.  Bowen Born recorded 22 points in the first half.

Gage Bobe opened the scoring in the second half with a triple and Coleman followed with a basket as the Aces scored the first five points of the second half.  Evansville connected on five of its first seven attempts of the second half to open on a 13-1 run.  Bobe’s second 3-pointer of the period cut the deficit to 39-33.  The defense for UE held the Panthers to 0-for-8 to open the half.

Just as fast as UE rallied, Northern Iowa countered with seven in a row to retake a 13-point lead.  After missing their first eight attempts of the period, the Panthers hit four in a row.  Up 52-41, Northern Iowa drained three consecutive triples to take their largest lead of 20 points with 9:25 showing on the clock.

UNI extended its lead to 21 points (65-44) but the Aces continued to fight back.  Antoine Smith Jr. hit a triple in a 7-0 stretch but the deficit was too much to overcome with the Panthers completing the game with the 72-55 victory.  UNI outshot the Aces by a 45.2%-37.3% margin for the game while totaling 42 rebounds to UE’s 31.

UE is back home Wednesday for a non-conference game against Campbell.  Tip is set for 7 p.m. inside the Ford Center.

OLNEY, Ill. – The No. 6-ranked Vincennes University Trailblazers faced another tough Region 24 test Saturday night and came away from Olney with a 73-67 win over Olney Central.

The Trailblazers jumped out to a big lead early, building a seven-point, 12-5 advantage.

Olney Central would rally back before an 8-0 Vincennes run extended the lead to 10.

VU would hold steady as the Trailblazers took a 38-27 lead into the locker room at the halftime break.

Olney Central began to claw their way back into the game before using an 11-0 scoring run to take their first lead of the game midway through the second half.

VU would grab the lead back to six points before the Blue Knights responded back on their home floor to take the lead back with a 7-0 run.

Vincennes looked to regain control of the game with a 9-0 scoring run capped off by back-to-back threes from sophomore Caleb Johnson (N. Preston, Nova Scotia) and freshman Kris King (Washington, D.C.) to give the Blazers a 67-59 lead.

Olney Central would look for another comeback but were only able to get within three points of the VU lead as Vincennes capped off their third Region 24 victory and 12th win in a row by the final score 73-67.

“We had enough periods of the game where we were solid to win tonight,” VU Hall of Fame Head Coach Todd Franklin said. “And we had enough periods where we weren’t solid to keep it in doubt. Olney Central has got a good ball club. They are going to beat a lot of teams if they stay together, keep working and stay healthy, like all of us. That was a quality win tonight.”

“They were ready for us,” Franklin added. “Olney Central came into this game feeling good and they had an idea of what they wanted to do, which was play physical. They got really physical, which is great, we want to do that. That’s no problem. But we had to handle some things. At times we did that okay and there were times when we didn’t. That’s why the game was in doubt and it was also why we pulled away and won it. We locked in enough at certain times to get it done. That’s the bottom line.”