Box Score

EVANSVILLE, Ind. – Freshman Egidijus Mockevicius and senior Troy Taylor posted career efforts as the University of Evansville men’s basketball team evened its conference record with a thrilling 62-59 win over Missouri State at the Ford Center on Wednesday evening.
 
Mockevicius led all scorers with 18 points on a perfect 6-of-6 shooting effort.  The frosh also led Evansville (8-6, 1-1 MVC) with five blocks and seven offensive boards.  Taylor finished with an amazing 19 rebounds along with six points and four helpers.  His effort was just two shy of the UE record of 21 rebounds, which Richie Johnson set in a 1984 game versus Western Kentucky.  Taylor’s total was the most in a single game for a Missouri Valley Conference guard in 25 years.
 
“We knew it was going to be a grind-it-out type of game, they threw a bunch of different lineups at us and were really good at going after matchups, but overall I am very proud of our team,” head coach Marty Simmons said.  “They really had to dig deep and find ways to make plays to be able to win.”
 
It was freshman Mockevicius with the quick start for UE, hitting his first two buckets as the Aces opened up a quick 4-0 advantage.  After the Bears (3-11, 1-1 MVC) notched a pair of buckets to tie it up, Taylor hit an open Mockevicius for two more buckets as the freshman from Lithuania would later hit a free throw while recording UE’s first nine points.
 
Evansville hit five of its first eight attempts while holding MSU to 2-for-7 en route to a 12-4 lead.  Its hot start slowed a bit as the Aces would hit just one of the next 11 shots while MSU cut the deficit to 14-13 at the 12-minute mark of the period.  Lewis Jones ended a scoreless streak of 5:39 for UE with a jumper with just over six minutes remaining in the frame.
 
Jones’ bucket later extended into seven UE points in a row as he knocked down a three to put Evansville up 21-15.  That would be the halftime score as the UE defense had its best half of the year in holding MSU to just 15 points.  The Bears were scoreless on 10 of their last 11 possessions of the period.  Mockevicius had a game-high of nine points in the half, hitting all four attempts.  The rest of the Aces combined to hit just four out of 23 while both squads shot just over 29% in the period.
 
A pair of free throws by Mockevicius early in the second half gave Evansville its largest advantage at 27-17.  With UE up 29-19, the Bears went on a 5-0 run, capped off by a Nathan Scheer three-pointer.  The threes kept falling as Missouri State knocked down three over a span of two minutes.  Both squads combined to connect on four treys in two minutes after combing to go 1-of-13 in the first half.  Scheer later hit another one to bring MSU with a pair at 32-30.
 
The spurt would turn into a 17-6 run by the Bears as Anthony Downing picked up an and-one to give MSU its first lead at 36-35.  Jones hit a pair of free throws on the ensuing trip down the floor to put the lead back in the hands of the Aces.  The back-and-forth action continued until Missouri State took its largest lead at 47-43 when Gavin Thurman downed his second trey of the game and Keith Pickens followed it up with a bucket of his own with three minutes left.
 
Lewis Jones, who notched a career-high 24 tallies last season on the road at MSU, made his 14^th point of the night a big one as it found the bottom of the net to cut the lead to two.  After a turnover, Taylor sank his free throws to tie the game back up at 47-47.  The inspired play by Evansville continued as the defense forced Downing to take a long three at the buzzer, which was corralled by Mockevicius, who found an open Colt Ryan for the shot to put UE back on top.
 
Up by four points with under ten seconds left, Scheer notched a layup and on the inbound pass for UE, Downing stole it and laid it in to knot the game at 51-51 and send the game to overtime.  Each team scored on its opening possession of the extra period before an old-fashioned 3-point play by Mockevicius helped UE go up by a 58-54 score. 
 
The freshman improved to 6-of-6 on the game with under a minute left to make it a 60-56 game in favor of UE, but Anthony Downing recorded his 17^th point on a trey with 40 seconds left to make it a 1-point game.  With the pressure on and the game clock dwindling, Ned Cox hit a jumper in the lane to put UE up by three with just six seconds remaining and that would be the final as a heave by the Bears fell short at the buzzer.
 
Led by Taylor’s 19 rebounds, Evansville finished with a 43-37 advantage on the boards and is now a perfect 6-0 when winning that battle.  Mockevicius finished with eight caroms, seven coming on the offensive glass.  Missouri State outshot UE by a .404-.361 margin while the Aces hit 80% (16-of-20) of the free throws while MSU was just 57.1% from the charity stripe.
 
Also finishing in double figures for Evansville was Jones, who equaled his season mark with 14 points and Colt Ryan, who registered 13.  Downing led the way for MSU with 17 points and 9 rebounds while Scheer added 10 tallies of his own.
 
Southern Illinois is the next opponent for UE as the Salukis are set to come to the Ford Center for an 8:00 p.m. tilt.  The MVC Network is slated to televise the game.  Next week, UE will take to the road on Wednesday looking for its second-consecutive win at Northern Iowa.