Boxscore
EVANSVILLE, Ind.— A "total team effort" in the words of Head Coach Marty Simmons led the University of Evansville Purple Aces (8-20, 2-15) to a thrilling victory over No. 22/25 University of Northern Iowa (24-4, 14-3) on Tuesday night, 55-54, in the Aces' last game of the season at Roberts Stadium.
The win over UNI marks the first win by Evansville over a ranked team since January 23, 2003, when UE beat No. 9 Creighton 74-66. The victory also provided a memorable Senior Night for the Aces' lone senior, walk-on Trevor Gregory, who made his first collegiate start Tuesday.
Down by 11 at 39-28, Northern Iowa made a 13-1 run to go ahead 41-40 with seven minutes to play, but Evansville came right back with five straight points to take the lead for good. James Haarsma put UE up 42-41 and Kavon Lacey hit a three to make it 45-41 with 6:10 to play. Evansville went up by eight at 51-43 with 3:16 to play on Haarsma's basket, but the Panthers eventually made it a two-point game with 24 seconds remaining when Ali Farokhmanesh hit a long three-pointer to cut Evansville's lead to 53-51. Eight seconds later, Northern Iowa had the ball back following a steal, but the Panthers missed a two-point attempt, Evansville grabbed the rebound, and Lacey hit two free throws with seven seconds left to give Evansville an insurmountable 55-51 lead. Johnny Moran cut the final margin to one with a three-pointer for UNI in the final seconds.
"Teams have made runs against us in the past, especially early in the season, and we cracked," Simmons said. "But tonight, so many guys stepped forward and helped us win. It was a total team effort."
Added Lacey, "Even though we had a big lead in the second half, we knew it was going to get tough. UNI is a great team. But we buckled down, started scoring some points, and made some stops. We've stayed together as a team all season, and that's beginning to show in how we've played recently."
Haarsma put in a team-high 12 points while grabbing eight rebounds. Lacey tied his season high with 11 points and recorded five assists and two steals. Colt Ryan added 10 points and three assists. The Panthers’ Jake Koch scored a game-high 22 points and 10 boards while Adam Koch put in 14 points. As a team, UE shot 46.3 percent from the floor compared to UNI’s 33.3 percent.
UE starting center Clint Hopf left the game midway through the first half with what doctors said was a significant knee injury. He will have a MRI on Wednesday.
Points were hard to come by early in the first half. UNI’s 28 percent shooting from the floor helped UE hold a lead for a majority of the first half until the visitors rallied with an 11-0 run with less than three minutes remaining, turning an 18-13 Evansville lead into a 24-18 UNI lead. But the Aces scored the last five points of the first half, and started off the second half with a 16-4 run to build the lead back up to 11 at 39-28.
The Aces play their last game of the regular season on Saturday at Drake with game time set for 4:05 p.m.
