UE rally comes up just short in home opener

Aces fall by six at the Ford Center

 

EVANSVILLE, Ind. – Trailing by as many as 17 points in the first half, the University of Evansville men’s basketball team rallied to make it a 1-point game in the final 20 minutes before Southeast Missouri State finished with a 67-61 victory at the Ford Center.

“SEMO came ready to play.  They have been battle-tested and did what good teams do.  We were a little reactive with the excitement of being at home and having a good crowd,” UE head coach David Ragland explained.  “We need to be proactive in our approach and be ready to play for each other and do what we did in the second half for the entire 40 minutes.”

Leading the way for the Purple Aces was Kenny Strawbridge Jr.   His 22-point effort saw him knock down 7 of his 17 attempts.  Yacine Toumi recorded 13 points and 7 rebounds.  Marvin Coleman II and Sekou Kalle got the job done on the boards recording 12 apiece.  For Coleman, it tied his career-high from his days at UNLV while Kalle’s effort was a new career-best.

Strawbridge converted the first field goal of the night for UE to break a 4-4 tie.  SEMO scored the next five tallies and would go up 11-7 on a Josh Earley triple at the 11:43 mark.  Yacine Toumi hit a free throw that made it a 1-possession game at 13-10 but it was the Redhawks who had the answer.

Outscoring the Aces by an 11-1 tally, SEMO went up by a 24-11 score inside of seven minutes remaining in the half.  Two free throws from Earley gave the Redhawks their largest advantage (34-17) with the half entering the final two minutes.  Evansville hit a pair of field goals in the final moments to close the gap to a 13-point gap of 36-23 at the break.  The story of the half was the SEMO defense which held UE to 26.1% shooting in the opening stanza.

Baskets by Toumi and Gage Bobe opened the second half for UE and would set the stage for Strawbridge.  His 3-pointer at the 17:20 mark cut the deficit to just seven – 38-31.  After the Redhawks pushed the lead back to seven points, the Aces continued to storm back.

What was once a 17-point deficit was cut to just one tally as a triple on the break by Blaise Beauchamp made it a 45-44 game with 11 minutes remaining.  Strawbridge had a field goal during the rally and picked up the steal that led to Beauchamp’s three.  SEMO had an immediate answer with Adam Larson draining a three.

Another SEMO triple pushed the lead to 53-46 with 8:25 remaining and UE could not get back within one possession as the Redhawks finished the night with a 67-61 win.

Chris Harris led four Redhawk double figure scorers.  He posted 14 while tying for the team high with six boards.  Kobe Clark and Josh Earley tallied 13 each.  SEMO outshot UE by a 41.8%-32.3% margin.  Evansville won the battle of the boards, 44-40.

On Saturday, the Aces are back on the road for a 2 p.m. game at SMU.