Aces battle to the finish in front of 6,419 fans

Shea Feehan scored five points in the final 15 seconds of regulation to force overtime, but Indiana State rallied in the extra period to defeat the University of Evansville men’s basketball team by a 72-66 final on Saturday inside the Ford Center in front of 6,419 fans.

Feehan led the Purple Aces (8-9, 2-2 MVC) with 12 points while John Hall, Marty Hill and Evan Kuhlman posted nine apiece.  Hall led the way with a game-high nine rebounds.  Hindering the Aces was 19 turnovers on the day.

“We had too many turnovers.  We did not deserve to win the game.  We came out and just did not do team things,” UE head coach Walter McCarty explained after the game.  “We need to come out like we did against Loyola every game, we cannot be complacent. Our program is trying to build consistency.  I am sure this loss hurts for our guys, but it is a learning process and we will get better from it.”

Leading Indiana State (10-6, 2-2 MVC) was Christian Williams, who scored 18 points.  He also had a team-best eight boards. Tyreke Key finished the game with 16.

John Hall picked up the first three baskets of the game for the Aces, leading to a 6-6 score three minutes in.  Allante Holston put the Sycamores back in front with a triple. The ISU lead reached five at 11-6 before the Aces rallied back with five of their own, including a Shea Feehan trey, to tie it up.

With 6:52 remaining in the opening stanza, Noah Frederking connected on a pair of free throws that gave Evansville its first lead at 20-19.  Up 22-21, the Aces reeled off six points in a row to take a 28-21 lead with 3:33 on the clock. Marty Hill had back-to-back buckets to cap off the run.  ISU got back within three points before a K.J. Riley basket gave Evansville a 30-25 halftime lead.

Indiana State scored the first six points of the second half to retake a 31-30 lead, but three minutes in, Hall was good from downtown, hitting his first home 3-pointer since the Jacksonville State game, to put UE back in front.  The back-and-forth action continued.  After Indiana State retook the lead at 39-38, Noah Frederking drained a triple to give Evansville a 41-39 advantage at the midway point of the second half.

Less than a minute later, three Sycamore free throws gave them a 44-43 lead, but Evansville pushed back once again. Freshman Shamar Givance nailed his first triple since December 15 in what was the 11th lead change of the game. Evansville pushed its lead out to five at 51-46 with just over five minutes left, but the Sycamores had one more run left in them.  Tyreke Key hit his first from outside to cut the deficit to one. With 3:08 remaining, ISU retook the lead at 52-51 on a pair of free throws.

With the shot clock going doing on the ensuing possession, Hill hit his first trey of the game under intense pressure to give Evansville the lead.  Indiana State responded with a 6-0 run as they took a 58-54 lead with one minute remaining. A Riley bucket got UE back within two but a pair of ISU free throws put their lead back at four with 15 seconds remaining.  Just when it looked like the game was over, Feehan drained a three from the UE logo to cut the gap to one.

“Coach told is to take it possession by possession.  We were down four points and he said to keep battling,” Feehan said. “We were able to force overtime, but for the rest of the game, we did not play our best basketball.  We feel like we could have won that game, especially when we were not at our best.”

After ISU went 1-for-2 from the line, Feehan was the hero once again, hitting a bucket in the final seconds to send the game to overtime tied up at 61-61.  Jordan Barnes hit the first bucket of the extra session before Evan Kuhlman notched two more free throws to tie the game at 63-63. The Sycamores posted consecutive field goals to go back up by four before the Aces added three free throws to cut the ISU lead to 67-66 at the halfway mark of the extra session.

That would be as close as the Aces would get as Indiana State would hang on for the 72-66 win.

“Coach told us in the locker room that we did not do some of the little things at the end of the game,” Kuhlman commented. “We need to focus on that stuff and have a few good days of practice.”

A bright spot on the day was the crowd who was in attendance, a total of 6,419.  It marked the most in close to three years.

“The crowd was unbelievable today and all season,” McCarty said.  “We appreciate their support.”

On Wednesday, Evansville travel to Missouri State for a 7 p.m. contest in Springfield.