UE Falls To Illinois State By A Final Of 72-66

Senior Dalen Traore set his career high with 11 points while Ryan Taylor scored 22 in his comeback but Illinois state made a late rally to pick up a 72-66 win over the University of Evansville men’s basketball team on Saturday at the Ford Center.

Traore did his damage for UE (10-4, 0-1 MVC) from the free throw line, hitting 9 out of 10 attempts.  Taylor drained 10 shots in 22 attempts while playing for 26 minutes.

Three other Aces notched double figures as Blake Simmons had 12, K.J. Riley finished with 11 and Duane Gibson had 10.

“It was a tough loss.  I really thought we did a lot of good things but give Illinois State credit,” UE head coach Marty Simmons said.  I thought we gave good effort, we just made mistakes at critical times and we have to get better at that.”

Illinois State (7-6, 1-0 MVC) was led by a 28-point game from Milik Yarbrough.  Twenty of those came in the first half.  Phil Fayne had 17 points while Keyshawn Evans finished with 16.

On the opening position of his first game back on the floor in over a month, Ryan Taylor connected on a jumper to give UE a 2-0 lead.  The UE defense held the Redbirds to 1-of-7 from the field while the Aces offense saw a Blake Simmons triple give them a 12-5 lead seven minutes in.

Duane Gibson, who missed the previous two games, notched a layup, steal and a runout for another bucket that gave the team an 18-10 lead.  The advantage reached double figures when Gibson’s sixth point of the game gave the Aces a 22-12 lead.

Evansville continued to hold a 10-point advantage at 24-14 with 6:44 left before Illinois State made its run.  The Redbirds finished the half on a 22-9 run as Milik Yarbrough had 20 points in the stanza.  They took their first lead of the day with three minutes left when an Isaac Gassman triple made it a 30-27 game.

On the last possession of the half, Yarbrough broke a tie at the buzzer, nailing a long triple to send the Redbirds to the break with a 36-33 lead.

The threes kept falling in the opening moments of the second half as Keyshawn Evans’ second of the day gave ISU its biggest lead at 39-35.  That is when Taylor took over the for the Aces.  He scored the first seven points of the half for UE, leading them to a 40-39 advantage.  He picked up his third foul less than three minutes in and temporarily went to the bench.

After ISU took a 46-44 lead, Taylor drained his eighth shot of the night before an and-one from K.J. Riley made it a 49-46 game in favor of Evansville and the lead got back up to seven at 55-48.

ISU had another run left in them, scoring the next six to cut the deficit to just one at 55-54 before a pair of Blake Simmons free throws brought the lead back to three.  The Redbirds responded on the other end of the floor.  UE went to a zone defense for the first time, but Keyshawn Evans found some room outside, hitting a game-tying three.

Ryan Taylor returned to the game with seven minutes left with four fouls and paid dividends almost immediately, putting the lead back into the Aces hands as he connected on a 10-footer.  Yarbrough hit two more free throws to give the Redbirds a 61-59 lead, but one of the unsung heroes of the day was Dalen Traore, who hit two free throws to tie it up and also set his career high.

An exciting back-and-forth contest continued.  Riley put UE on top at 66-65 with just over two minutes left, but Evans was true from long range once again, giving Illinois State the lead right back on the next trip down the floor.  With under a minute remaining, ISU held a 68-66 lead.  A pivotal out of bounds call gave the ball to the Redbirds where Evans hit another triple to put the game away.

“We have to pay more attention to details,” Ryan Taylor explained.  “We gave up a 10-point lead and the little things we did not do were the difference.  We need to build and pay attention to those details.”

Evansville shot 46.9% for the game while ISU checked in at 48.9%.  The Redbirds also took the rebounding battle by a 29-26 final.   The main difference on the day came from 3-point range as the Redbirds hit 11 out of 24 attempts and the Aces finished at 1-of-10.

Following the Christmas break, the Aces take to the road for a pair of league contest.  On December 30, Evansville heads to Chicago to take on Loyola before making the trek to Carbondale on January 3.