USI gets big win on Senior Night, 74-64

EVANSVILLE, Ind. – University of Southern Indiana Men’s Basketball picked up a big victory on Senior Night, defeating Lindenwood University, 74-64, Saturday evening at Screaming Eagles Arena. The Screaming Eagles go to 14-13 overall and 7-7 in the OVC, while the Lions are 9-18, 4-10 OVC.     
    
USI moves up into a tie sixth in the OVC standing, one game out of the four-way tie for second with four games to play in the regular season. The top eight teams in the OVC advance to the league’s postseason tournament scheduled for March 1-4 at the Ford Center in Evansville, Indiana.  
 
The Eagles started slow, while the Lions got off to a quick start and had an early 18-8 lead with 13:55 left in the first half following a 10-2 run. USI closed the gap to four points, 22-18, on a three-pointer by sophomore guard Isaiah Swope (Newburgh, Indiana) with 9:41 on the clock.
 
After Lindenwood pushed its lead back to nine, 25-16, USI shrank the deficit to three points, 27-24, after a pair of free throws by senior forward Jacob Polakovich (Grand Rapids, Michigan), who had a team-best 12 points in the opening half. The three-point deficit would be as close as the Eagles would come in the first 20 minutes as the teams went into the intermission with the Lions leading 35-29.
 
The second half started very differently for the Eagles as they used an 8-2 run to knot the game at 37-37 before three minutes were gone on a Polakovich layup. USI would take its first lead since the opening bucket, 41-40, when senior guard Jelani Simmons (Columbus, Ohio) threw down a dunk at the 15:30 mark.
 
After trading buckets and leads, USI went on a 7-0 run to lead 55-48. Freshman center Kiyron Powell (Evansville, Indiana) sparked the run with an old fashion three-point play and a pair free throws that were sandwiched around a pair of charity shots by Swope to give USI its largest lead to that point (seven points).
 
Lindenwood closed the gap to 62-60 with 3:26 to play when USI spun off 10-straight points to lead by 12, 72-60, with under a minute to play. The Eagles and Lions traded free throws in the final 30 seconds before USI closed out the 74-64 victory.
 
USI had three players reach double-digits in the scoring column, led by Polakovich’s 23 points. The senior was a red hot nine-of-12 from the field and five-of-eight from the stripe, while grabbing a game-high nine boards.
 
Simmons and Swope followed with 17 points and 14 points respectively. Swop also had a game-high five assists.