Boxscore

CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. -- Evansville's offense made a step upward here Tuesday night, but Southeast Missouri's rebounding made an even bigger step.  The result was a 49-30 rebounding advantage for the Redhawks, and an 87-77 victory over the Purple Aces.

Evansville is 0-3 heading into Saturday's 1:00 CST game at  Ball State.  SEMO is 2-2.

"I'm very disappointed," Coach Marty Simmons said.  "We put a lot of work and effort to get ready for this game, and they just manhandled us.  Rebounding is about heart, technique and pursuing the basketball.  There's a lot of work for us to do in that area."

The Redhawks finished with 20 offensive rebounds, and they jumped ahead by 12 points in the first half and never let the Aces get closer than seven points the rest of the way.  There were some positives for the Aces offensively, with Shy Ely scoring a career-high 23 points and Jay Couisnard adding a career-high 12.  Junior guard Jason Holsinger scored 13 points.  Freshmen Clint Hopf and Pieter van Tongeren combined for 17 points and seven rebounds.

"J.C. (Couisnard) is successful when he's aggressive, and he was tonight," Simmons said.  "Shy got aggressive in the second half and Clint stepped up and gave us a lift.  There were a lot of positives but if we want to get better, we have to change behavior.  We have to block out and work on our defensive effort."