Box Score


Box Score (PDF)

EVANSVILLE, Ind. – The University of Evansville men's basketball team kept rolling as they picked up a 91-68 victory over Anderson University to improve to 5-0 at the Ford Center on Saturday evening.
 
Leading the way once again was sophomore D.J. Balentine, who tallied 29 points once again.  Through four games, the Kokomo, Ind. native has three 29-point outings while tallying 32 in Wednesday night's win over Valparaiso.  He hit 10 out of 11 shots including all three 3-pointers and a 6-6 effort from the charity stripe.
 
Blake Simmons and Ryan Sawvell each chipped in 15 points.  For Simmons, it ties his career mark, a tally that he has finished with in three out of four contests.  Sawvell's final tally was one shy of his career mark and was also his second 14+ effort in a row.
 
Saturday's win marked the first 5-game win streak for Marty Simmons in his head coaching career at UE and is the first such streak for the program since the Aces won nine games in a row from Dec. 11, 1999 through Jan. 12, 2000.
 
It was Balentine starting off hot once again as he scored the opening eight tallies for UE, hitting his first three shots, including a pair of treys.  Anderson held tough as Brett Anderson hit two early shots before Max Mollaun hit a three of his own to give the Ravens a 10-8 lead five minutes in.
 
Jaylon Brown quickly got the game tied back up at 10-10 as he began a 7-0 UE run to take a 15-10 lead.  Anderson, behind hot shooter Anderson, roared right back with six in a row as they connected on 4-of-6 threes as a team and Brett Anderson was 3-3 from outside.
 
Aside from their long range shooting, the Ravens were helped by their crashing of the offensive glass as they grabbed six out of the first seven in that department.  Evansville was able regain control in the closing minutes of the first half as they took their largest lead of nine points at 39-30 on a Blake Simmons three.
 
Balentine later hit Simmons on a nice feed to the basket as the Aces took their first double digit lead at 45-34 before an Adam Wing trey completed the first-half scoring in the final seconds as UE settled for a 48-38 advantage at the break.  Balentine led all players with 19 tallies at the half while hitting all six of his attempts.  Brett Anderson led AU with 14.  The Ravens attempted 17 treys in the period with seven going down.
 
Putting their struggles from the first half behind them, the Aces came out with a new focus in the second half, scoring the first 17 points of the half to take their largest lead at 65-38 just over six minutes into the half.  Evansville hit four of its first five shots of the half while the defense forced misses on the first five Anderson shots along with six turnovers.  Mollaun ended the run with a three at the 13:36 mark.
 
That run proved to be the turning point in the game, though, as the lead never got under 20 points for the remainder of the game before it finished off with a 91-68 final.
 
Scott Schwieterman was the leading scorer for the Ravens, tallying 18 points along with a team-best 7 boards.  Brett Anderson finished with 17 while Mollaun totaled 16.
 
The offense was cranking once against for UE as the team shot 57.7% making 30 out of 52 shots.  Evansville has shot 50% or above in each game marking the first time since an 8-game streak of doing so from Dec. 8 1998 through Jan. 9, 1999.  Anderson shot 48.1% while draining 11 treys on the night.
 
Adam Wing marked the fourth double-figure scorer for UE, tallying 12 to go along with a team-best 8 rebounds.  While he did not score any points, Duane Gibson showed his unselfishness in a big way, dishing out 11 assists as the Aces posted helpers on 24 out of 30 makes.
 
Evansville will look to improve to 6-0 for the first time since the 29-0 NCAA Championship 1964-65 team when they travel to Indiana University on Tuesday night.  Game time is set for 8 p.m. ET and will be televised on the Big Ten Network.