Boxscore

EVANSVILLE, Ind. -- The University of Evansville seniors came through on Senior Night.  Shy Ely, Jason Holsinger and Nate Garner combined for 42 of the University of Evansville's 56 points Wednesday night as the Purple Aces (17-11, 8-9) grinded out a 56-49 Missouri Valley Conference win over Bradley (16-13, 9-8).

Most of the crowd of 6,683 stayed around afterward to hear from the three seniors in their final regular season game at Roberts Stadium.  UE could play another game at Roberts March 17 or 18 if they earn a berth in the NIT, College Basketball Invitational, or CollegeInsider.com Post-Season Tournament.

With one game left in the regular season, the Aces are back in a fifth place tie with Wichita State, and one game ahead of Drake and Southern Illinois.  Best of all, the Aces are now guaranteed to get the #4, 5 or 6 seed in the March 5-8 State Farm MVC Tournament at St. Louis.  The top six teams advance directly to the March 6 quarterfinals.  This will be the first time since 2003 that Evansville has avoided the opening round games (#7 vs. #10, and #8 vs. #9) of the MVC tournament.

The day belonged to Holsinger, who found out prior to Wednesday's game that he had been chosen as a first team Academic All-American.  Then he went out and led the Aces with 19 points and became only the 12th player in Evansville history to score more than 1,400 career points.

Down by 10 at halftime, Bradley chipped away in the second half and came within two points at 48-46 on a Theron Wilson three-pointer with three minutes to go.  The Aces only led by three with 90 seconds to go, but Evansville stopped the Braves on each of their last three offensive possessions, and Garner and Ely each went 2-for-2 at the free throw line to clinch UE's 17th win of the season.  Those are the most victories since the 2000 team won 18.

Ely added 14 points for the Aces, and Garner scored nine points to go along with 10 rebounds.  Freshman James Haarsma came off the bench to score six points and also grab 10 rebounds.  Evansville finishes the regular season Saturday at Northern Iowa, where the host Panthers (19-10, 13-4) will try to clinch the school's first MVC championship.  The game will be televised throughout most of the Midwest on Fox Sports Midwest.