EVANSVILLE, Ind. – Dwayne Lathan scored a game-high 27 points to lead Indiana State to a 90-81 double overtime victory over the University of Evansville men’s basketball team on Sunday evening at the Ford Center.
 
Colt Ryan led the Purple Aces (10-11, 5-6 MVC) with 23 points while Kenneth Harris had 19.  Both combined to go a perfect 21-21 from the free throw line.  Freshman Ryan Sawvell finished with 11 points while junior Troy Taylor made another run at the second triple-double in UE history, scoring nine points while tallying 10 rebounds and eight assists.
 
Four lead changes took place in the opening four minutes of the game as the Aces found themselves up 8-7 after a bucket by Colt Ryan.  Indiana State (13-9, 4-7 MVC) made its first run of the game as Dwayne Lathan scored twice in a 6-0 Sycamores run to give them a 13-8 advantage.
 
Evansville cut the deficit to a single point with 12:35 left in the half as a shot by Ned Cox made it a 13-12 game, but Indiana State scored six-straight as Lucas Eitel hit a pair of treys to give ISU a 7-point lead.  The hot shooting beyond-the-arc continued for ISU as they hit five of their first seven threes en route to a 33-21 lead with five minutes remaining in the half. 
 
The Sycamores kept up their 70% shooting as their lead grew to as many as 14 (37-23) in the period before ISU went into the half with a 42-31 advantage.  Indiana State shot 68% (17-of-25) in the half.  It marked the second-straight game the opposition has enjoyed success in the first half.  On Wednesday evening in Wichita, the Shockers were successful on 19 out of 26 (73.1%) shots in the period.
 
Kenneth Harris and Ryan Sawvell notched four points apiece in the opening four minutes of the second half as UE got within four (48-44).  Evansville hit their first four shots of the half to cut into the lead.  Indiana State quickly responded with an 8-0 stretch as Lathan struck once again, scoring six-consecutive points as ISU put its lead back up to double figures.
 
Rokas Cesnulevicius ended a four-minute scoreless drought as it was the Aces turn to rally.  Harris hit two and-ones to cut the Sycamore lead to three points (56-53) with just over seven minutes remaining, but Jordan Printy hit his third trey on the ensuing trip down the floor to end a scoreless streak of six minutes  to help ISU go back up by six points.
 
Over the final seven minutes, the Aces kept fighting.  Another shot and free throw by Ryan Sawvell made it a 1-point game with five minutes left before another trey gave ISU a 62-58 lead.  With just under two minutes left, Harris hit yet another and-one for UE to knot the game at 66.  Those would be the final points of regulation as the teams combined to miss their final four shots at the game went to overtime. 
 
On the Aces first possession, Ryan gave UE its first lead since the opening minutes of the game, but a quick 5-0 spurt, led by a Steve McWhorter three helped the Sycamores go up by a 71-68 tally. 
 
The back-and-forth action continued as two Harris free throws and a Sawvell dunk helped the Aces go back up 72-71 with two minutes left before Jake Odum hit a pair of free throws as ISU retook the lead with 1:32 left.  Six lead changes took place in the final two minutes, but the difference  was a pair of Ryan free throws with three seconds remaining that sent the game into a second overtime with the score tied at 79-79.
 
Indiana State clinched the game in the second OT, scoring the first eight points and never looking back, coming away with the 90-81 win.
 
Lathan led ISU with 27 points while McWhorter had 12 and Odum notched 10.  The Sycamores finished with the rebounding edge (34-33) and the final shooting advantage (53.4%-45.8%).  Evansville, one of the top 10 free throw shooting teams in the country, continued to make that mark climb, hitting 92.3% of its shots (24-26).
 
The Aces will be on the road for a pair of MVC contests this week, traveling to Bradley on Wednesday before heading to Carbondale, Ill. for its second matchup against Southern Illinois on Saturday at 2:05 p.m.