Boxscore

Evansville won its first Missouri Valley Conference men's basketball game Saturday night, with surprising ease.  The Aces put together good shooting, good defense and a season-high 28 points from Jason Holsinger in their 84-65 victory over Missouri State, in front of 7,875 fans at Roberts Stadium.

Missouri State jumped ahead 5-0, but the rest of the night belonged to the Aces, now 6-13 overall and 1-8 in the MVC.  The Aces outscored the Bears 17-4 late in the first half to take a 40-26 halftime lead, and increased their lead to as much as 25 points in the second half.  Holsinger hit seven three-pointers on his way to the 28 points.  That's just one fewer than his all-time best.  Shy Ely added 17 points and Darin Granger scored 11.  For the Bears, now 11-10 and 4-5 in the MVC, Justin Fuehrmeyer and Dale Lamberth led the way with 14 points each.

"I am so happy for our players, because they have worked very hard and come away with very few rewards lately," said first-year coach Marty Simmons.  "Some guys would have given up by now. I really respect our players for the effort they continue to bring to the game."

The win wasn't spoiled, but the post-game party was a little less than it could have been because of an ankle injury to Ely, who came into the game as Evansville's leading scorer and rebounder.  He left the game with seven minutes to play with a sprained right ankle.  Doctors will look at it further in the next two days to determine whether he will be able to play Tuesday in the Aces' next game, at Southern Illinois.