Coach Marty Simmons wore sleeves back in his playing days at UE, but the new tops couldn't help the Aces pull out a victory Saturday.
Big Second Half Wins For ISU
12/29/2007 9:09:37 PM
Boxscore
EVANSVILLE, Ind. -- Indiana State outscored the Purple Aces 26-10 to begin the second half, and that was too much for the host University of Evansville men's basketball team to overcome Saturday night.
The Sycamores went on to beat the Aces 70-56 in the first Missouri Valley Conference game of the season for both teams, in front of a crowd of 6,307 at Roberts Stadium. Indiana State is now 6-5 overall. Evansville is 5-6 going into Wednesday's game at Northern Iowa.
The loss came on a night in which the Aces went back to their past and wore sleeved jerseys for the first time since the 2001-02 season, Jim Crews' final year as head coach. Evansville also wore sleeves throughout most of the 1940s through 1990s. The Aces won five NCAA College Division national championships under coach Arad McCutchan, who began the sleeved tops, and the Aces also went to the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament five times beginning in the 1980s.
But on Saturday, Evansville needed far more than their historic uniform tops to beat the Sycamores. Up 26-25 at halftime, Evansville was quickly down by nine points at 37-28 with 16:28 remaining. The Aces never got closer than nine points over the final 10 minutes as Indiana State scored 45 points and shot 56.5 percent in the second half, while holding the Aces to only 32 percent shooting over the final 20 minutes.
Gabe Moore led the way for Indiana State with 22 points, and Todd McCoy and Marico Stinson added 13 each. Jason Holsinger, the current MVC Player of the Week and Prairie Farms/MVC Scholar-Athlete of the Week, led the way for Evansville with 17.