Box Score

DAYTON, Ohio – The Purple Aces men's basketball team took a 17-3 lead to open the game and never looked back, taking a 70-58 win over Wright State in BracketBusters action at the Nutter Center on Saturday afternoon.
 
"This is a great win for us, Wright State changed their defenses and our guys battled and battled," UE head coach Marty Simmons said.  "Our guys stepped up in a big way today."
 
Colt Ryan led the way for UE (16-13, 8-8 MVC) with 21 points on 8-of-19 shooting.  He also notched seven rebounds.  #D.J. Balentine# was right behind him with 18.  The freshman was 7-12 overall while knocking down four 3-pointers.
 
The game could not have started any better for UE as they scooted out to a 9-0 lead to begin the game.  After a pair of free throws and a Colt Ryan layup, Ned Cox drained the first trey of the game.  J.T. Yoho put WSU (18-10) on the board with a pair of free throws, but Evansville kept rolling as Egidijus Mockevicius had a put-back to make it a 13-2 lead at the 4-minute mark.
 
Evansville hit its first four shots while Wright State was 0-11 to begin the game with three turnovers.  The Aces continued to add to the lead before Jerran Young hit the first bucket of the game for the Raiders to make it a 17-5 game.
 
With Evansville up 21-7, Wright State made its move, hitting six out of seven shots to cut the gap to 21-16 as part of a 9-0 run.  D.J. Balentine put a quick end to that as he led an 8-0 rally, hitting a layup and two threes to put UE back up 29-16.  Once again, Wright State fought back with an 11-3 run to get back within five, but Evansville came back as Balentine hit another three with five seconds remaining to send UE to the half up 39-28. 
 
Yoho led everyone with 16 points in the first half while Balentine had 11.  The Aces shot 53.6% (15-28) while holding Wright State to 30.3%.
 
Wright State came out on fire to start the second half.  After Balentine opened up the second-half scoring, the Raiders posted 8 in a row thanks to a pair of threes as they cut the gap to five for the third time.  Evansville had the answer once again, hitting three buckets in a row to end the run.  Lewis Jones hit a pair of pivotal buckets in the run, which got him into double figures for the game.
 
Evansville would match its largest lead of 14 at 59-45 inside of seven minutes left but the Raiders would once again fail to give up.  They got back into single digits, but the potential dagger came at the 4-minute mark as Balentine connected on his fourth trey to give the Aces a 14-point advantage (64-50).  Six in a row by Colt Ryan put the icing on the cake as UE went up by 18 and would settle for the 70-58 win.
 
After ten years of BracketBusters play, the Aces finish with an even 5-5 mark.  UE finished with a 37-31 rebounding edge while outshooting WSU 50%-35.8%.
 
Leading the way for Wright State was Yoho, who notched 20 points and a game-high 11 rebounds.  Jerran Young tallied 11 while Kendall Griffin finished the day with 10.
 
Conference play resumes for UE on Wednesday as the Aces travel to Wichita State for a 7 p.m. game.  Next weekend, Evansville will wrap up the regular season next Saturday versus Indiana State with a 4 p.m. contest.