INDIANAPOLIS – Below find Gov. Eric J. Holcomb’s public schedule for December 17, 2019.
 Tuesday, December 17: IEDC Q4 Board Meeting
WHO:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Gov. Holcomb
Indiana Secretary of Commerce Jim Schellinger
WHAT:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â The governor will chair the meeting.
WHEN:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 4:00 p.m., Tuesday, December 17
WHERE:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â KAR Auction Services – Room 221 South
11299 N. Illinois St.
Carmel, IN 46032
Admiral lives up to his name: he’s a super handsome, big gray male cat. He is 5 years old. He gets along fine with other kitties. He’s currently crashing at River Kitty Cat Café until he finds a home, and can be visited with there Tuesday-Sunday. His adoption fee is only $40 and includes his neuter, microchip, vaccines, and more. Get $10 off when you adopt Friday-Saturday 12/13-12/14. Contact Vanderburgh Humane at (812) 426-2563 for adoption details!
University of Southern Indiana junior forward Emmanuel Little was named the Great Lakes Valley Conference Player of the Week after leading the Screaming Eagles to an 81-61 victory over Lincoln College (Illinois) Sunday. The GLVC Player of the Week award is the first of Little’s career and the first for USI this season.
Little led the Eagles to victory with his first double-double of the season, scoring 18 points and grabbing 15 rebounds. The junior forward also dished out a season-high and tied a career-best with four assists, made two steals, and blocked two shots.
The Eagles and Little resume the five-game homestand Saturday when they host King University for a 1 p.m. game and reach the half-way mark of the home streak Sunday when they welcome Tiffin University for a 3 p.m. contest at the Screaming Eagles Arena.
Multiple thefts of catalytic converters from vehicles were being reported throughout Evansville. The main targets of these thefts were larger work or commercial trucks. These parts can cost up to $2000 each to replace.
As the cases were being investigated, detectives from the Evansville Police Department developed 34 year-old Edward Lee Payne Jr. as a suspect and began to conduct surveillance on Payne. In the early morning hours of December 15, EPD Detectives witnessed Payne park his vehicle and walk onto the lot of Hasgoe, a commercial cleaning service.Â
Payne crawled under a work vehicle and the detectives then heard sounds that were consistent with the operation of a reciprocating saw. Payne then emerged from under the truck, walked back to his own vehicle and left the area. Detectives observed that there were fresh cut marks on the vehicle’s catalytic converter. Payne returned to Hasgoe later that morning and again began to saw on the converter. Once again, after a short time, Payne emerged from under the truck and left the area without taking the converter. Â
The surveillance detail continued and Payne returned to Hasgoe at approximately 2:40 a.m. on December 16 and finished cutting the converter from the vehicle. He took the converter to his vehicle and left the area. Uniform officers took Payne into custody shortly after he left the lot of Hasgoe.
Payne has been transported to the Vanderburgh County Confinement Center and will be charged with theft. The EPD believes that Payne may be responsible for other thefts of catalytic converters. If anyone has knowledge about this theft or has been a victim of a stolen catalytic converter, they are asked to call the Evansville Police Department at 812-436-7979 or the WeTip line at 1-800-78-CRIME.
Battling all contest, the University of Evansville dropped a road game, 59-44, at Illinois on Sunday afternoon in Champaign, Ill.
Helping lead the Aces, freshman Abby Feit led Evansville with a team-best 19 points, hitting five threes, while recording eight boards and three steals. In just her second game in white and purple, junior Lola Bracy scored 15 points, following up her 25-point performance on Friday night. Leading the Illini was Petra Holesinska, who tallied 25 points, knocking down seven triples.
The contest opened in an ideal fashion for the Aces as Evansville jumped out to a 6-0 advantage on a pair of three-pointers by Feit. Illinois answered with five-straight points, but it was Feit who pushed the Aces’ lead back to three on a layup with 6:31 left in the opening quarter. Evansville responded to Illinois’ response, as Lola Bracy hit a triple and Jada Poland got to the rim for a layup to give UE a 13-8 lead. To close the period, Illinois hit two threes, going on a 6-0 run to take a 14-13 lead after 10 minutes of action.
The second quarter saw a better offensive rhythm for the Illini, while the defense for Illinois created turnovers. Despite that, Evansville contiued to battle taking back the lead on two different occasions, including an important triple by Feit that earned a 22-20 advantage for the Aces. After the the Aces locked down on defense on the other end to cut their deficit to three at halftime.
A pair of three-pointers by Illinois’ Holesinska helped the Illini take an eight-point advantage out of the break at 38-30. In the period, Evansville got down as large as 10, but cut a point off its deficit at 48-39 to close the third quarter.
A personal 5-0 run for Bracy helped fuel Evansville in the fourth quarter. Bracy out-scored the Illini single-handedly in the first six minutes of the quarter, while the Aces held Illinois scoreless. Bracy’s final bucket of the run forced an Illinois timeout. Coming out of thee timeout, the Illini took control, holding Evansville off the scoreboard and recording an 11-0 run to grab the 59-48 win.
Evansville was out-rebounded in the game, 53-38, but forced the Illini into 24 turnovers, a season-high for Illinois.
The Aces head back to Meeks Family Fieldhouse for their final home game of 2019 on Wednesday when Evansville welcomes in Chicago State for its Ugly Christmas Sweater Game at 6 PM.
Aces and Gamecocks to play Monday evening
A 72-62 win at Green Bay on Saturday saw the University of Evansville men’s basketball team improve to 8-3 overall and 3-0 on the road.  The Purple Aces look to improve those statistics on Monday when they take on Jacksonville State at Pete Mathews Coliseum.  Game time is 7:30 p.m. with ESPN+ and the Purple Aces Radio Network on the call.
Setting the Scene
– Riding a 5-game win streak, the Aces face the Gamecocks on their home court in Jacksonville, Ala.
– The 5-game win streak is the longest in head coach Walter McCarty’s tenure
– Monday’s game will be the third for the program in the state of Alabama; the Aces have taken on South Alabama on two occasions, most recently in 1987
– UE and JSU met for the first time last season at the Ford Center with the Gamecocks earning a 55-50 win on Dec. 15
Last Time Out
– On Saturday, the Aces picked up a 72-62 win at Green Bay
– Evansville led by as many as 19 points in the game and never trailed
– DeAndre Williams posted his fourth double-double of the season, scoring 22 points and adding 12 rebounds; he was 7-8 from the floor
– John Hall scored 12 points while Noah Frederking added 11
– K.J. Riley had a season-high 10 rebounds
– UE’s defense held the Phoenix to 62 points – 18 under its season average
– The defense also held Green Bay to just 27.3% shooting; the second-lowest in Coach McCarty’s two seasons
 Win Streak
– As a team, the Aces have improved in several facets over the recent win streak; in the three losses, UE was outrebounded by 13.3 boards per game – the last five games – all wins – the Aces have outrebounded the opposition by 2.0 per game
– UE’s shooting has gone up – the Aces have shot 49.2% in the win streak while the three losses saw the team finish at 37.9%
– Evansville has shot 50% or better in the three of the last five, including 64.2% against the RedHawks – the top effort in the Coach McCarty era
Dialing up from downtown
– In the win over Western Illinois, the Aces connected on 15 3-pointers, the most for the team in a home game at the Ford Center; UE added 12 against Miami Ohio and 10 at Green Bay
– Under Coach McCarty, the Aces have hit 10 or more triples on 13 occasions
– Between the start of the 2009-10 season and the end of the 2017-18 campaign, the program hit 10+ triples just 11 times in 298 games
16th-ranked University of Southern Indiana Men’s Basketball opened a five-game homestand with a 20-point win over Lincoln College, 81-61, Sunday afternoon at the Screaming Eagles Arena. USI goes to 6-1 overall, while Lincoln is 5-9 in 2019-20.
USI hung on for a five-point advantage, 40-35, at the end of the first 20 minutes. The Eagles, who generated their offense from the outside by hitting six-of-14 from beyond the arc, had built an advantage of 16-points, 35-19, with 6:08 to play in the first half before the Lynx used a 16-5 run to cut the margin to five at the intermission.
USI senior guard Darnell Butler led the Eagles’ offensive attack early with 12 of the first 17 points on four three-point bombs. Junior forward Emmanuel Little followed by nearly producing a double-double in the first half on eight points and nine rebounds.
The first seven minutes of the second half saw the Eagles push the lead back out to 16 points, 55-39. The margin continued to grow until it reached 20 points with 10:15 to play, 62-42, and again with 7:37 left, 67-47.
The Lynx made one last run at the Eagles, surging with an 8-2 run to cut the margin to 11 points, 69-58, with 5:00 to play. After a quick USI timeout, the Eagles re-established command of the contest by scoring 12 of the final 15 points for the 81-61 final.
Butler and Little finished the second half and the game tied for the game-high with 18 points each. Butler, who scored six in the second half, was six-of-11 from the field, five-of-eight from beyond the arc, and one-of-two from the line, while Little was seven-of-16 from the outside and four-of-five from the stripe.
Little also posted his first double-double of the season with a game-high and season-best 15 rebounds.
Senior guard Joe Laravie rounded out the USI double-digit scorers with 11 points, in addition to dishing a team-high five assists. He was five-of-12 from the field and one-of-one from the line.
USI resumes the five-game homestand Saturday when it hosts King University (TN) for a 3 p.m. tip-off. King, currently, is 7-3 and is slated to play Emmanuel College December 18 before coming to USI.
The Eagles lead the series with King, 3-1, after falling to the Tornado last year, 86-80, in the Physical Activities Center. Little led the Eagles with 24 points and seven rebounds, while guard Alex Stein had 20 points.
Vanderburgh County Sheriff Dave Wedding announced today that he will appoint Major Noah Robinson to the rank of colonel and his second in command to take over from retiring Chief Deputy John Strange III.
Major Noah Robinson is an 18 year veteran of the Sheriff’s Office. Major Robinson was a patrol officer with the Owensboro Police Department before joining the Sheriff’s Office in 2001. He spent eight years assigned to the Operations Division where he served as a patrol deputy and later as a field training deputy. He later moved up the ranks, serving as a sergeant in the Professional Standards Unit and then as a lieutenant in the Administration Division. Major Robinson will continue to serve as the executive commander of the Administration Division until his appointment as chief deputy later this month.
Sheriff Wedding said, “I am very excited to have Noah Robinson assuming the role of my chief deputy. I have relied on Noah heavily over the years and know he has what it takes to assist me in leading this agency. He possesses extensive operational and administrative experience and is well respected by his fellow office members.â€
Chief Deputy John Strange, who is retiring on December 27, 2019, after 33 years of full time service, will transition to a part-time role as the assistant chief deputy with the rank of lieutenant colonel. Sheriff Wedding explained, “I am fortunate that John agreed to remain with our agency as a member of my leadership team and to serve as a resource for our entire command staff.â€
The future chief deputy will assume his new role beginning December 27, 2019, which is the effective date of Chief Deputy John Strange’s retirement from full time service.
Major Noah Robinson is a graduate of Castle High School and attended the University of Southern Indiana where he obtained an Associate’s Degree in Social Science and a Bachelor’s Degree in Sociology.
We hope that today’s “IS IT TRUEâ€Â will provoke honest and open dialogue concerning issues that we, as responsible citizens of this community, need to address in a rational and responsible way?
