Indiana State takes 87-73 win

 TERRE HAUTE, Ind. – Trailing by as many as 25 points in the second half, the University of Evansville men’s basketball team cut the gap to just eight points in the final minutes before Indiana State completed the night with an 87-73 win on Wednesday inside the Hulman Center.

Posting a game-high 19 points, Yacine Toumi led the way for the Purple Aces.  He was 9-of-13 from the field and registered 10 boards on the way to his second double-double in the last three games.  Kenny Strawbridge Jr. scored 15 points while Cam Haffner posted a season-high of 11.  Antonio Thomas ended the game with 10.

“Our league is really good and there is a reason Indiana State is on top of it.  It starts in transition, I thought we let them get out in transition early and it really opened things up for them,” Purple Aces head men’s basketball coach David Ragland said.  “I am proud of how we responded in the second half.  To be down by 25 and cut that to eight points on the road was a positive for us.  We will learn from it and get better.”

Five Sycamores reached double figures with Jayson Kent and Isaiah Swope tallying 18 apiece.  ISU shot 48.3% in the game while UE finished at 45.7%.  On the boards, ISU finished with a 40-33 advantage.

Indiana State scored the first eight points of the night while the Aces missed their opening four attempts while turning it over once.  Cam Haffner got Evansville on the board with a triple at the 16:44 mark.  The Sycamores added to their lead with their fourth 3-pointer of the evening pushing the advantage to 20-8 just over seven minutes into the half.

Yacine Toumi picked up consecutive field goals while Chuck Bailey III added his first score of the night to cap a 6-0 run over the next minute of play.  With 11:12 on the clock, Kenny Strawbridge Jr. connected from downtown to cut the deficit to five – 22-17.  At the 7:33 mark, the seventh triple made it a 12-point game once again (35-23), but UE answered once again when Toumi drove to the basket for a bucket to make it a 38-31 contest.

It was Toumi converting his sixth field goal to make it a 40-35 game inside the 4-minute mark before the Sycamores rallied with a last-second basket to take a 48-37 advantage into the break.  Toumi led everyone with 12 in the period while three ISU players registered 10 apiece in the opening 20 minutes.

Josh Hughes drained a triple on the opening possession of the second half, but the Sycamores bounced back to take a game-high lead of 14 points (56-42) inside the first four minutes of the stanza.  Antonio Thomas scored on a drive to cut the deficit back down to 12 on the ensuing trip down the floor.

Unfortunately, things continued to go the way of ISU as an 8-0 stretch pushed their advantage to 20 points for the first time at 67-46 inside of 13 minutes remaining.  After the Sycamores went up by a 78-53 margin with 8:27 left in the contest, Evansville worked its way back.  At one point, the offense hit five shots in a row to make it an 80-64 game before Haffner picked up his second triple of the game to get within 13.

As the clock approached three minutes remaining, Haffner was true from downtown once again and it was Toumi knocking down a jumper to get within eight with just over two minutes remaining.  In total, a 19-2 run saw Evansville turn a 78-53 deficit into just an 80-72 game.  Despite the strong attempt, the comeback came up short as the Sycamores fended off the challenge to take the 87-73 decision.

UE’s first home game of the New Year will see them face Murray State in a 1 p.m. game on Saturday inside the Ford Center.