Excellent effort gives Aces the road triumph
VALPARAISO, Ind. – Ryan Taylor and Dru Smith each had stellar nights to lead the University of Evansville men’s basketball team to a 75-65 win over Valparaiso on Wednesday night at the Athletics-Recreation Center in the team’s first meetings as Missouri Valley Conference members.
“This was a good win for us, everybody contributed,†Aces head coach Marty Simmons said. “We got into some foul trouble in the first half and the guys off the bench did a great job. Valpo made a run in the second half, but we showed some great poise to get the win. I am very proud of our guys.â€
Dru Smith and Ryan Taylor combined to score 45 points in the win for UE (13-9, 3-6 MVC). Smith led all scorers with 23 points as he hit 12 out of 13 free throws. Taylor went 8-of-19 from the field on his way to 22 points playing just 20 minutes from his hometown. Blake Simmons finished with 8 points. As a team, the Aces hit 29 out of 31 free throws.
Leading the Crusaders (11-11, 2-7 MVC) was Bakari Evelyn with 17 points while Tevonn Walker and Mileek McMillan had 14 and 12, respectively.
A pair of triples saw Valparaiso take a 6-2 lead in the opening minutes. Neither team could get it going early on as each squad hit two of its first seven attempts. Evansville knotted the game at 8-8 on a Ryan Taylor jumper six minutes in before the Crusaders had their best run of the half.
Valparaiso scored the next five as Tevonn Walker hit a three and Markus Golder had a dunk. Their run turned into a 10-2 stretch to take an 18-10 lead midway through the stanza.
From that point on, Evansville got its offense cranking, finished the final 10 minutes of the first half on a 28-12 run. The pivotal stretch came with VU up 21-17. The Aces rallied to score 13 in a row to open up a 30-21 lead. Four in a row by Dru Smith tied the score at 21-21 before John Hall gave UE its first lead of the day at 23-21 with a pair of free throws.
An and-one from Smith kept the run going as Noah Frederking and Blake Simmons also hit buckets with just over three minutes remaining. The lead grew to as many as 10 points before the Crusaders closed the gap to 38-30 at the break. Following the slow start, UE finished the half hitting 11 of its final 20 attempts from the field.
Taylor opened the latter period with a basket as UE extended its lead back to 10. The lead remained at three possessions eight minutes into the half at 49-42 when the Crusaders roared back. A 5-0 run that included a Walker trey got them within a pair at 49-47. That is when Taylor took matters into his own hands. After hitting a layup to push the lead to four, he made three out of four free throws on a Valpo technical foul as the lead was extended back up to nine points.
With under six minutes left in the contest, Taylor’s 20th point of the night also gave UE its largest lead at 61-50. Evansville held a 67-57 lead entering the final minute before Max Joseph connected on a three-pointer to make it a 7-point UE lead. Smith countered with a pair of free throws to put the game on ice as the Aces finished with a 75-65 win.
Evansville outrebounded the Crusaders by a 42-34 margin. UE shot 39.3% on the night with the Crusaders finishing at 36.8%.
A special day is on tap Saturday when the Purple Aces host Drake in a 1 p.m. game. It will mark the retirement of eight jerseys (Arad McCutchan, Jim Crews, Hugh Ahlering, Brad Leaf, Marty Simmons, Scott Shreffler, Andy Elkins and Marcus Wilson). The first 3,000 people at the game will receive a replica banner commemorating the jerseys being retired.
