Junior Ryan Taylor scored 25 points and senior Blake Simmons posted the first double-double of his career to lead the University of Evansville men’s basketball team to its third win a row, taking down UNI by a final of 57-49 inside the Ford Center on Wednesday evening.
“I am just proud of our guys,” Evansville head coach Marty Simmons said. “UNI was able to come back on us in the first half, but we did a nice job of playing better together in the second half. We made some plays and our defense did a nice job. This is a good win for us.”
Taylor connected on 10 out of 17 shots on the night on the way to his third 20-point game in a row. Simmons finished with 15 points and 15 rebounds for UE (15-9, 5-6 MVC). Evan Kuhlman had a nice game, posting eight points in 17 minutes of work.
“Our mindset is the same every night,” Blake Simmons said after the game. “Unfortunately Dru was not out here tonight, but our goal is the same every night and that is to always play as hard as we can and get the W and that is what we did tonight.”
Leading the Panthers (11-13, 3-9 MVC) was Bennett Koch. He scored 19 points and had five rebounds, both team bests.
A defensive battle ensued as the Purple Aces and Panthers battled to a 21-21 tie at the half. Evansville had the upper hand early on as a Blake Simmons trey and a field goal from Ryan Taylor gave UE a 5-0 lead. The Aces added to make it an 8-2 game before the Panthers got back on track with an Isaiah Brown triples that got them within a point at 10-9.
Taylor, who totaled 12 points in the first half, had a 10-0 run on his own. He started off with two 3-pointers that gave Evansville a 20-9 lead. UE’s defense held the Panthers scoreless for 8:06 as UNI missed 10 shots in a row.
Wyatt Lohaus ended the UNI streak with a triples of his own and helped them finish the half on an 11-1 run to force the 21-21 tie at the break. Evansville missed its last seven field goal tries of the half and went without a bucket for the final 6:43. UNI’s run was capped off by a Hunter Rhodes trey in the final minute that tied the game up.
The Panthers had an efficient opening possession of the second stanza. After forcing the third person foul of the night on both Dainius Chatkevicius and Dalen Traore, Rhodes hit a jumper giving the Panthers their first lead of the game at 23-21. A Bennett Koch and-one pushed the UNI lead to 28-22 less than four minutes in.
On the next UE possession, K.J. Riley ended a streak of over 10 minutes without a field goal as he connected on a shot at the 16-minute mark. Evan Kuhlman followed that up with a three to bring the Aces within one at 28-27. Taylor’s hot night continued as his third 3-pointer of the game tied it up at 32-32 with 12:24 left.
Seconds later, the 19th points of the evening for Taylor gave the lead back to Evansville at 34-33. After Northern Iowa tied it up on a free throw, a 5-0 run, all from Blake Simmons, put the advantage back in UE’s favor. As a team, Evansville hit seven field goals in a row to go up, 39-34.
Neither team could pull away too far as Carlson connected from downtown to cut its deficit to a pair, but on the other end, Noah Frederking hit his first bucket of the night and Kuhlman followed it up with his second from long range as the Aces went up 45-39 with 7 minutes remaining.
Evansville’s lead continued to grow. With under five minutes on the clock, Simmons’ fifth basket of the game, coupled with another one from Taylor, saw UE match its largest lead at 53-42. The Panthers got as close as seven in the final minutes, but the Aces clinched the night with a 57-49 victory.
UNI finished with a slight 33-32 edge on the boards, but it was the Aces offense finishing the night at 45.7% while the defense held UNI to 31.3%.
Simmons led everyone with his career mark of 15 caroms to go along with 15 points in his first double-double. He was proud of the effort following the game.
“I was able to block out, be aggressive and go after the boards,” Simmons said. “Sometimes the ball just falls to you and tonight, the bounces were going towards me. It was good to have a double-double, but more important, we got the win.”
It is back to the road for the Aces as they travel to Normal, Ill. on Saturday to face Illinois State in a 3 p.m. contest inside Redbird Arena.
