Boxscore

EVANSVILLE, Ind. -- It's nice to start out with an 18-point lead, and the University of Evansville needed that quick start here Saturday night to hold off Indiana State 63-57 in front of a crowd of 6,548 at Roberts Stadium.  The Aces are 12-5 overall and 4-3 in the Missouri Valley Conference going into Tuesday's 6:05 CST home game against Creighton.  The Sycamores dropped to 4-13 and 2-5 with the loss.

The Aces built an 18-0 lead before Jay Tunnell finally hit a three-pointer for Indiana State with 9:26 to go in the first half.  Evansville still led by 10 with 3:00 to play in the game before the Sycamores went on a 10-3 run to cut Evansville's lead to 59-56 with 1:05 to play.  It was seldom used sophomore forward Clint Hopf who preserved the lead for the Aces, getting open for a layup with 28 seconds remaining to put the Aces up 61-56, and then hitting a free throw on UE's next trip downcourt to give Evansville a six-point lead with 11 seconds to go.  Hopf, averaging 1.4 points coming into the game, scored a season-high 10 on Saturday.  All 10 came in the second half.

"It was nice to be able to come in and contribute," said the 6-8 Hopf, who hit two of three shots and six of seven free throws.  "I just tried to do the same things I work on in practice every day."

Evansville already has three more wins than in all of 2007-08, and the Aces are above .500 in the MVC this late in the season for the first time since the 1999-2000 season.  UE is tied for fourth in the MVC at 4-3 with Creighton and Drake.

Evansville's Shy Ely, second in the MVC in scoring, led all scorers with 16, and Kavon Lacey added 11.  Lacey hit two three-pointers.  The sophomore had made only three in his career going into Saturday's game, and had never hit more than one in a single game.

"We can't depend on just one or two players for our scoring," said coach Marty Simmons.  "That's why it was nice to see Clint come through for us in the second half, and it was good to see Kavon hit some shots.  We needed both of them tonight."