Boxscore
On a night when the University of Evansville was tested numerous times, its co-captains made sure the Purple Aces passed the biggest test of all--winning the game.
Behind the 21 points of Shy Ely on the night he surpassed 1,000 career points, and the 20 points of Jason Holsinger, the Aces improved to 8-2 Saturday with a 73-66 homecourt win over North Carolina A&T. Evansville is off to its best start since the 1994-95 Aces started out with a 9-2 record.
Ely also produced his third double-double of the season with 10 rebounds to go along with his 21 points, and the team's third senior, Nate Garner, added his second double-double of the year with 11 points and 14 rebounds. However, Saturday's outcome was in doubt until the final minute because of North Carolina A&T's 12-for-24 three-point shooting. The game was made even more challenging since it came just 48 hours after UE played a physical game on the road against number one ranked North Carolina.
"After playing in that environment (at UNC), I knew this would be tough, but what really made it tough was the opponent," coach Marty Simmons said. "I have a lot of respect for A&T. I remember watching Jerry (A&T head coach Jerry Eaves) play at Louisville, and his team plays hard like he did.
"We didn't always play hard in the first half. We had some breakdowns. But I'm really proud of our guys. They really want to win, sometimes so much that they need to relax a little more. It's a credit to those guys in the locker room that we're off to this kind of start."
Down by seven in the first half, Evansville came back and eventually went ahead by 15 midway through the second half at 56-41. But the 5-6 Aggies cut the margin to three points at 63-60 with 3:35 to play. Two three throws by Ely put the Aces up 65-60, and Holsinger followed with a three-pointer that hit the front of the rim, bounced high, and fell through to make it 68-60 with one minute to play. The Aggies cut the lead to five at 68-63, but Ely and Holsinger hit four free throws in the final 22 seconds to improve Evansville's record at Roberts Stadium to 8-0. Holsinger was 5-for-7 from three-point range in the second half.
"Good things happen to people who work hard," Simmons said, "and nobody works harder than Jason Holsinger."
Ely, meanwhile, topped 20 points for the third consecutive game. His 12th point of the game, in the final minute of the first half, put him at 1,000 points for his career.
"I didn't even know about 1,000 until earlier today," Ely said. "It's nice, but it's nicer to be winning."
The Aces get their longest break of the season this week before returning to Roberts Stadium on Sunday, Dec. 28 to play their Missouri Valley Conference opener against defending league champion Drake, which is now 9-3 after beating Iowa by 17 points on Saturday.
