Boxscore
MUNCIE, Ind. -- Good shooters don't stay cold for long, and sophomore Darin Granger warmed up Saturday afternoon for the University of Evansville. Granger was 4-for-19 from the floor in his first three games, but he hit six of 11 shots Saturday and led the Aces to a 51-50 victory over Ball State.
Evansville picked up its first win Saturday under first-year coach Marty Simmons, and is now 1-3. Ball State is 0-4.
The big story Saturday aside from Granger's shooting was an Evansville comeback in the final five minutes. Down by nine points with less than five minutes to play, Pieter van Tongeren and Shy Ely hit back to back buckets to make it 47-42, and Jason Holsinger followed with a three-pointer to bring the Aces to within two points at 47-45 with less than three minutes left. Ely then tied the score and Nate Garner put the Aces up 49-47 with 45 seconds to play. Ball State standout Peyton Stovall came right back to put the Cardinals up 50-49 with a three-pointer with 34 seconds remaining. Evansville took the ball at that point and finally found van Tongeren down low for a layup with 10 seconds to go. The 51-50 lead was only Evansville's second in the last 12 minutes of the game.
With only two fouls called against them to that point in the second half, Evansville committed three fouls in the next seven seconds against Ball State. In the Cardinals' final play from out of bounds with 3.4 seconds left, Malik Perry drove against van Tongeren and got off a 12-foot shot that bounced off the right side of the rim at the buzzer.
"I've got to give a lot of credit to our players," Simmons said afterward. "We were down nine and Ball State had us on the brink, but our players never quit. Nate (Garner), Piet (van Tongeren), Shy (Ely) and Jason (Holsinger) had big baskets, and a lot of other guys gave us positive contributions. I know that last basket that won the game has to be a big one for Piet's confidence. I see us continue to build and bond together as a team. That feeling in the locker room after today's game was special for all of us."
In addition to Granger's 16 points, 11 of which came in the first half when UE took a 27-21 lead, Ely and van Tongeren added nine points. Garner scored four and grabbed 10 rebounds. Stovall led the Cardinals with 22.
The Aces are off for a week and then play their third straight road game on Saturday, Dec. 1 at the University At Buffalo, Evansville's second straight Mid-American Conference opponent.
