Boxscore
EVANSVILLE, Ind. -- If your team trails by 12 points in the second half, and one of your best players is watching from the bench with a broken hand, there's not much hope. Is there? There was for the Aces! They never gave up Wednesday night, and the result was one of the best finishes of the season: a 60-56 victory over the Creighton Bluejays.
Junior Shy Ely hit all 18 of his free throws and matched his career high with 28 points. Freshman Kavon Lacey, one of those replacing the injured Jason Holsinger, added 13 points and seven rebounds. The result was Evansville's third win in its last four games at Roberts Stadium. The Aces are now 8-16 overall and 3-11 in the Missouri Valley Conference. Third place Creighton is 17-7 and 8-6.
"With the respect we have for Creighton, and the rallying around our team had this week for Jason Holsinger, this was a great win," said Coach Marty Simmons. "It's a resilient bunch of guys. They keep hanging in there. They are a determined bunch."
Evansville still trailed by eight at 42-34 with seven minutes to play, then quickly cut the Bluejays' lead to 45-43 with four minutes to play. The Aces finally took their first lead of the second half on Lacey's jumper with 1:55 to go, 49-48. UE took the lead for good with 1:08 to play when Ely hit two more consecutive free throws. On the night, his 18 for 18 free throw shooting left him just two free throws shy of the school record set by his former teammate, Matt Webster, last season. The game was finally wrapped up with three seconds to go when Darin Granger hit both of his free throws to give the Aces a 60-56 lead. Evansville ended up 30-for-32 at the free throw line. Creighton ended up with six more field goals than the Aces, but hit only 13 of its 20 free throws.
"We were standing around too much in the first half," according to Ely, "but we kept moving a lot better in the second half and that got us to the free throw line more often. Our defense also helped us. Good defense can make the offense better, and it did tonight against a very good team."
Nick Bahe led the Bluejays with 17 points and P'Allen Stinnett added 14. Creighton had a three-game winning streak going into the Evansville game.
