USI starts 3-GM homestand next week

DURHAM, N.C. – University of Southern Indiana Men’s Basketball concluded the Duke Blue Devil Challenge with an 80-62 loss to ninth-ranked Duke University Friday evening at the Cameron Indoor Stadium in Durham, North Carolina. The Screaming Eagles are 1-6 after tonight’s action, while the Blue Devils are 5-1 to begin the season.
 
The Eagles stunned the Blue Devils in the first five minutes of the game, quickly building a 10-point lead, 15-5, when the first media time out was called. USI would go on to lead by 10 points six different times during in the first 20 minutes.
 
Following USI pushing the lead back to 10, 32-22, with 5:02 left in the half, Duke used a 9-3 run to close the gap to four, 35-31, at the break. USI was led in the first half by sophomore guard/forward AJ Smith (Edwardsville, Illinois), who had 11 points and nine rebounds.
 
Junior guard Jeremiah Hernandez (Chicago, Illinois) and sophomore guard Jack Campion (Milton, Wisconsin) followed Smith in the first half with seven points each. Campion also had a team-high three assists in the opening half and would tie a career-best with seven assists in the contest.  
 
The second half saw Duke exploded out of the locker room with an 11-0 run to take the lead for the first time since the opening minutes, 42-35, its largest lead to that point. The Duke lead expanded to as many as 16 points, 58-42, but USI was not done.
 
The Eagles used a 6-0 run that was capped off by a dunk by sophomore forward Kiyron Powell (Evansville, Indiana) to close the gap to nine points, 58-49. The nine-point deficit would be as close as the Eagles would come the rest of the way.
 
Duke hit the gas one more time in the final five minutes and outscored USI, 22-13, the rest of the way to close out the 80-62 final.
 
In the scoring column, USI was lead by Hernandez’s team-high 15 points. The junior guard, who had eight points in the second half, was five-of-13 from the field, including a three, and four-of-four from the stripe.
 
Junior guard/forward Javius Moore (McComb, Mississippi) and Smith followed with 11 points each to round out the double-digit scorers. Moore was a blistering four-of-six from the field and three-of-four from beyond the arc.
 
Smith finished the game with a team-high 13 points to produce his third double-double of the season. Twelve of Smith’s 13 boards came on the defensive end.
 
Next Up For USI:
The Eagles return to the friendly surroundings of Screaming Eagles Arena next week to start a three-game homestand. USI begins the homestand Tuesday (November 28) by hosting East/West University at 7 p.m.
 
East/West, which will be making its first appearance at Screaming Eagles Arena, is 3-9 this season and 1-4 in its last five games.
 
The homestand will continue December 2 when USI hosts Bowling Green State University and concludes December 6 versus Purdue University Ft. Wayne. Tipoff versus Bowling Green is 3 p.m., while tipoff against Ft. Wayne is slated for 7 p.m.

MOBERLY, Mo. – The No. 5-ranked Vincennes University Trailblazers faced their first game away from the Physical Education Complex this season and were able to come away with a 78-69 victory over State Fair Community College at the Moberly Area C.C. Thanksgiving Classic.

Vincennes got off to a slow start Friday afternoon, turning the ball over four times in the first four minutes of the game and found themselves facing a 16-12 deficit midway through the first half.

VU would score five unanswered to grab the lead back at 19-18, one of 11 lead changes during the opening half of play.

The two teams continued to battle, with VU looking to grab the momentum with an open dunk by freshman Damarien Yates (Somerville, Tenn.) and freshman Lebron Thomas (Bishopville, S.C.) connecting on three of three from the free throw line to give the Blazers a 35-30 advantage.

The Roadrunners answered back before the half, cutting the deficit to two and heading into the halftime break trailing Vincennes 38-36.

State Fair continued to ride this momentum in the second half, taking the lead back at 49-48.

The lead changed hands eight times in under five minutes before VU looked to take control with a 6-0 scoring run to lead 67-61.

State Fair again would answer back, cutting the lead back down to two, but were unable to take the lead back as VU closed out the game to pick up the 78-69 victory.

“At the end of the day, we were a little bit more efficient offensively than they were,” VU Hall of Fame Head Coach Todd Franklin said. “I think that if you look at both teams, when you look at shooting the ball and putting the ball into the basket, lack of turnovers, hitting threes, it was a high quality game. I tip my hat to State Fair. I thought State Fair played the heck out of it today.”

“When you look at the shooting numbers, they were 25 of 48, 8 of 18 from three and 11 of 14 from the free throw line,” Franklin added. “They had 11 turnovers. We got a few as the game went along. I thought they played really well. I thought they made us pay.”

“I thought the key to the game though, when we couldn’t get away from them enough, was we let Alex Gunnels have,” Franklin said. “Because at the end of the day, you can’t have the secondary guys go to the thing that they do and that really bothered me on that sideline. We knew he was going to drive it right. He had the one bank in three, those things happen, but he had about four or five layups going to his right, right from the top where we did not follow the assignment. If you follow the assignment on him, he’s not going to get that and he ends up with 19 points.”

“When you are playing somebody that is play well like they did and you have to dig the game out, it’s hard enough when their good players are going, which they were,” Franklin added. “But you can’t let the secondary guy beat you. Particularly to the one thing you know in the scouting report, that’s what he’s going to do. That’s a lesson we are going to have to learn. We are going to get tougher minded about those things.”

“But I thought, other than that, we didn’t finish on two situations when we went to the foul line when I thought we were about to extend the lead and get it to eight or 10,” Franklin said. “We played fine because we got to the line on two different trips and we went 0 for 4. We missed one front end of a bonus and two free throws, out of four points we got none. Then the next trip down we had a point blank shot and then a tip-in at point blank and it ended up being knocked out and being a bucket going the other way. So out of three possessions when we had all free throws and layups, we ended up with no points and they ended up with a layup.”

“But we made the plays,” Franklin added. “When you look at our numbers, we’re 27 of 52 and nine of 16 from three and I don’t think we took a bad one. We were patient. Sometimes almost too patient and weren’t ready a few catches. But we were patient. We found the shooters and were able to get a quality, balanced shot up and guys made them. 15 of 23 on free throws, we’d like to get a little better from the line. We only had 10 turnovers. We had a few tentative, sloppy ones in the first half that gave them a little courage. But we only ended with 10 for the game.”

“At the end of the day, you tip your hat to State Fair,” Franklin said. “I don’t know if they will play like this every day or not. But if they play like this, they are going to win a lot of ball games. They were a plenty good enough team today to give most people a run for their money. Because we shot it and handled it and didn’t turn the ball over. Whether it was pretty or not, at the end of the day, those things we did well enough and we needed to to get this win.”

The Trailblazers were led offensively by Lebron Thomas, who scored 11 of his team-high 16 points in the first half, while also dishing out five assists on the night.

Sophomore Kris King (Washington, D.C.) picked up the scoring in the second half, scoring 12 of his 14 points in the final 20 minutes of play, including hitting three of three from behind the three-point arc.

Sophomore Karyiek Dixon (Enfield, London, UK) finished his night with 12 points, six rebounds and a team-high four blocks defensively.

Sophomore Ryan Oliver (Antioch, Tenn.) was the fourth Vincennes scorer in double-figures, ending with 10 points, four assists and three rebounds.

Freshman Mathieu Nader-Kalombo (Longueuil, Quebec) also helped get the VU scoring going in the first half, connecting on three of four from behind the arc for nine points on the night.

Sophomore Michael Osei-Bonsu (Bolingbrook, Ill.) battled foul trouble in the first half and came back with a strong second half to finish with eight points and nine rebounds.

“I thought we shot it,” Franklin said. “And the guys that shot it, shot it pretty well. It was on and off, up and down, good and bad. It’s hard to say that somebody sustained it all night. I didn’t think Kris had a great first half but in the second half he stepped up and played big. Karyiek had moments and some moments not so much. Michael was the same way. So I thought it was across the board like that.”

“I thought Mathieu gave us some good minutes in the first half when we needed it,” Franklin added. “But I thought most guys, as far as shooting the ball, were pretty good. Ryan didn’t want to shoot the ball as much as he should have and then finally before the last time we sent him in, we were all over him to be ready and then one time it swings and he busted it. There’s no coincidence to that. We didn’t take bad shots. I didn’t think we forced anything. I thought as a group, collectively, we tried to break that zone down and offensively we were pretty good.”

“Defensively, eh, but they played really well,” Franklin said. “At the end of the day you have to tip your hat to the other team sometimes and State Fair, I thought, was really good tonight. We may have helped them on some things, but I thought other than Gunnels, there were just individual breakdowns here and there. But they made us pay. Every time we relaxed a little, things that you might not have paid for other times, we paid for tonight.”

“I thought we overall did what we had to do,” Franklin added. “Gutted it out. Kris King shot the ball in the second half and we made some big shots with different guys doing it. I thought Karyiek did some good things defensively late that were key. Michael got on the boards pretty good and cleared the glass when we had to. So it was a collective and I thought that Kris in the second half was probably the offensive spark that we needed to get over the top. He made the big shots when we had to make them right when the game is hanging in the balance and had a couple of big drives against the zone when it opened up. But this was a good gut-check win.”

The Trailblazers will face another tough test tomorrow, Saturday, Nov. 25 when VU faces No. 12 Moberly Area Community College in the final game of the MACC Thanksgiving Classic at 8 p.m. eastern.

This will be the third straight Saturday the Trailblazers have faced a team ranked in the top-25 after facing Monroe College and Indian Hills the past two Saturdays.

“I just hope we ratchet up the intensity on defense and we follow the game plan,” Franklin said. “I thought like, on Gunnels, that we broke the game plan tonight and it almost cost us the ball game. Those things are important and hopefully they have learned that now.”

VINCENNES BOX SCORE

VINCENNES (78): Kris King 4-5 3-4 14, Kent King 1-6 2-2 5, Lebron Thomas 5-12 5-5 16, Michael Osei-Bonsu 4-7 0-0 8, Karyiek Dixon 4-10 4-7 12, Damarien Yates 2-2 0-0 4, Mathieu Nader-Kalombo 3-4 0-1 9, Alphonse Muteba 0-0 0-2 0, Ryan Oliver 4-6 1-2 10, Team 27-52 15-23 78.

State Fair – 36   33 – 69

VU (8-0) – 38   40 – 78

Three-point goals: VU 9 (Kr. King 3, Nader-Kalombo 3, Ke. King, L. Thomas, Oliver). Rebounds: VU 29 (Osei-Bonsu 9). Assists: VU 23 (Ke. King 6). Steals: VU 6 (Kr. King 2). Blocked shots: VU 7 (Dixon 4). Turnovers: VU 10. Personal Fouls: VU 14. Fouled out: None.

Moline, Ill.:  Despite outshooting the Storm by a 35-31 count and dominating the first period and stretches of the third period, the Thunderbolts were unable to hold even with the Quad City Storm, losing 5-2 at Vibrant Arena on Friday night.  The Thunderbolts next home game will be on Friday, December 1^st against the Roanoke Rail Yard Dawgs, puck drop at 7:00pm CT.

Evansville dominated the first period, outshooting Quad City 14-5 in the opening frame, however the Thunderbolts were unable to score first as the Storm converted on a power play, with Logan Nelson opening the scoring late in the period.  In the second period, Matt Ustaski and Michael Moran added goals nearly halfway through the period, before Aiden Wagner scored to get Evansville back to within two goals.  The goal was his first as a Thunderbolt, assisted by Scott Kirton and Mike Ferraro only three seconds into a power play at 16:34.  John Schiavo scored to restore the three goal lead early in the third period, before Matt Dorsey responded late in regulation, scoring with 3:32 remaining from Colton Kalezic to pull the Thunderbolts back to within a pair of goals.  Following a penalty shot save from debuting Thunderbolts’ goaltender Cole Ceci, the Storm scored an empty net goal in the final minute to seal the 5-2 final score.

Wagner and Dorsey each finished with one goal, while Ceci finished with 26 saves on 30 shots.  The Thunderbolts and Storm meet once again on Saturday, November 25^th at Vibrant Arena.

Evansville erases 20-point deficit to pick up overtime win

Aces defeat Mocs by a final of 85-77 

NOVEMBER 24, 2023

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. – Trailing by as many as 20 points in the second half, the University of Evansville men’s basketball team staged one of the largest rallies in Missouri Valley Conference history to defeat Chattanooga in overtime by a final of 85-77 inside McKenzie Arena.

With 11:40 remaining in regulation, the Purple Aces trailed Chattanooga by a 62-42 margin.  From that point on, UE outscored the Mocs by a 43-15 margin to pick up the improbable road win.  Chattanooga was shooting 53.3% (24-of-45) from the field and 47.8% (11-of-23) at that point.  Over the final portion of regulation and overtime, the defense for UE held the Mocs to 4-for-24 from the field and 3-of-18 from long range (both 16.7%).  The comeback by Evansville tied the 8^th-largest comeback in MVC history.

“This was a huge win for us; our guys never gave up and we continued to battle regardless of how many points we were down,” Purple Aces head coach David Ragland explained. “We challenged the group with about 11:40 left and said, “Do we believe?”  Seeing the looks in their eyes, we could see that they believed and they responded the right way.”

Evansville’s win gives the program its best start since an identical 5-0 mark to open the 2017-18 campaign while matching the win total from the entire 2022-23 season.  Anchoring the comeback was Ben Humrichous.  He finished with a game-high 28 points, 18 of which came during the Aces comeback.  He was 11-for-21 from the floor while draining five triples.  Antonio Thomas finished with 11 points while Tanner Cuff and Chuck Bailey III scored 10 and 9, respectively.  Cuff picked up his first double-double at UE, hauling in 11 rebounds.

Yacine Toumi hit his second triple of the season to open the scoring as the Aces began the day with a 7-2 lead.  Ben Humrichous and Antonio Thomas added baskets in the early stretch.  The Mocs rallied right back with seven in a row to take their first lead of the afternoon at 9-7 five minutes in.  Cam Haffner tied the score with a floater, but the Chattanooga run continued as they tacked on five more to go up 14-9.  In total, the Mocs outscored UE by a 12-2 margin.

Ben Humrichous hit from downtown and Tanner Cuff added his first basket of the day as the Aces tied it up at 14-14 at the 13:09 mark.  Another 3-pointer put Chattanooga back on top, but UE staged a rally of its own to go up 24-20 near the midway point of the period.  Gage Bobe hit a triple to highlight the run.

Things continued to go back and forth with Humrichous’ second long ball of the day knotting the score at 29-29 with exactly four minutes showing on the clock.  Over the final minutes of the stanza, the Mocs would retake the advantage and head to halftime up by a 40-36 score.  Humrichous had a game-high 10 points in the opening 20 minutes.

In the win over Ball State, Evansville outscored the opposition by a 17-0 margin in the opening moments of the latter half.  It was a different story on Friday with UTC doing the damage.  Six in a row by the Mocs, coupled with a 0-for-7 start by the Aces, made it a 46-36 contest in the first three minutes.  After Evansville scored four in a row, Chattanooga reeled off 13 consecutive points to cap off a 19-4 run to open the half and go up 59-40.

Chattanooga extended the lead to 20 (62-42) before the Aces fought back.  Bobe’s second triple completed a 7-0 run to cut the deficit to 13 with 9:13 left in the contest.  Two minutes later, Humrichous made it ten Evansville points in a row with another triple to cut the Mocs lead to 62-52.  Rudy Fitzgibbons III ended a scoreless stretch that exceeded five minutes with a three, but the Aces posted the next four to make it a 65-56 game entering the final five minutes.

Another triple by the Mocs reestablished the double figure lead on the ensuing possession, but Tanner Cuff immediately drained a three to make it a 9-point game once again.  With 3:31 on the clock, Joshua Hughes nailed a triple that got his squad within six tallies.  As the contest entered its final two minutes, Humrichous took full control.  With 2:06 remaining, his triple made it a 3-point game and, following a Chattanooga turnover, he was true from outside once again to tie the score at 68-68 with 98 ticks left.

Two free throw misses by the Mocs gave the ball back to UE and Humrichous converted a jumper to give the Aces their first lead since the first half.  UTC knocked down a pair of free throw tries with 33 seconds left to send the game into overtime.

Riding the wave of momentum from their comeback, the Aces got right back to work in overtime.  Humrichous had a 3-point play to get things started while Antonio Thomas hit a pair of free throws to make it a 75-70 game less than a minute in.  Thomas added a field goal and Cuff converted a pair of free throws to cap off a 9-0 run to open the OT period.  Chattanooga posted its first overtime points with 1:02 remaining, but the UE lead was too much to overcome.  As the clock reached zeroes, Evansville finished off an 85-77 triumph.

Five Mocs reached double figures with Honor Huff tallying 17.  Sam Alexis registered 10 points while hauling in a game-high 15 boards.  Evansville finished with a 41-39 rebounding edge while outshooting the Mocs by a 42.6%-40.6% tally.

Tomorrow, the Aces complete the Coke Zero Sugar Classic against Southeast Missouri State.  Tip is set for 1 p.m. CT.

–www.GoPurpleAces.com–