EVANSVILLE, Ind. – Throughout the first part of the 2019-20 season, University of Evansville head men's basketball coach Walter McCarty has preached to his team to be unselfish with the basketball. On Tuesday evening, his team posted 25 assists and rallied for a 90-86 win over Western Illinois at the Ford Center.
The final assist tally was the most UE (6-3) has posted in Coach McCarty's tenure, passing the previous high of 20, which was set last season at Xavier. Entering tonight's game, the highest for the Aces has been 14 versus Morgan State.
Box Score (PDF)
"To have 25 assists and 17 turnovers is remarkable; I am just thinking about the opportunities. If we do not turn the ball over a few of those times, we may turn that into more baskets," McCarty said. "If we continue to get singles and take care of the ball, we could have scored 120 points tonight. Before the game, I challenged them to come away with 14 or more assists and we were able to do that."
It was another close game down the stretch as the Leathernecks (2-6) led by four points with 4:47 remaining and the Aces were able to overcome the deficit to post their third win in a row and sixth of the season.
"These games are good for us, once we start understanding the small details, we are going to take off," McCarty added. "We are learning some tough lessons right now, but we are winning."
DeAndre Williams was the leader of the pack for Evansville, finishing with 21 points, 9 rebounds and 4 assists. That comes just four days after a 25-point, 15-rebound, 5-assist contest at IUPUI. He was 6-of-8 from the floor and hit all seven free throw tries and both 3-point attempts. Sam Cunliffe added 15 points and 6 boards while K.J. Riley checked in with 10 points. Leading the Leathernecks were Kobe Webster and Ben Pyle, who recorded 19 and 18 points, respectively.
It was the Purple Aces who had the upper hand in the opening moments, scoring the first five points of the game. DeAndre Williams hit a triple before Artur Labinowicz added a layup. After the Leathernecks got on the board, Evansville added to its lead, hitting five of its first eight attempts on its way to a 12-6 lead.
Western Illinois fought back with an 18-5 run to go in front for the first time. At the midway point of the half, Kobe Webster connected on a jumper that gave WIU its first lead at 15-14. They continued to hit on all cylinders from there and Zion Young would cap off the run with a 3-pointer that gave Western Illinois a 24-17 advantage.
The Aces got right back in the game as an and-one from Labinowicz made it a 1-possession game at 27-24. Inside of the four-minute mark, John Hall drained a triple that put UE back in front at 34-33. Following a WIU bucket, Shamar Givance gave the Aces a 37-35 lead on the next possession. With the score knotted at 39-39 in the final minute, the Leathernecks would score the final four tallies of the half and take a 43-39 lead at the break. WIU shot 58.6% in the half.
A reenergized Aces squad came out on fire in the second half, hitting three of its first four shots to go back in front, 46-45. Noah Frederking hit his second triple before Williams added the final four points. His dunk on a nice feed from Cunliffe gave Evansville the lead, forcing a Western Illinois timeout with 17:47 left. An and-one from Williams continued the rally, putting UE up 49-45.
WIU fought back to tie it up at 52-52, but Evansville used the long ball to take its largest lead. Sam Cunliffe knocked down his first triple of the game to put UE back in front before Frederking assisted on treys from Williams and Henderson that extended the advantage to 61-54. Once again, the Leathernecks rallied back as a 3-point play dropped the Evansville lead to one at 64-63 inside of 11 minutes remaining. Three minutes later, the Western Illinois run continued when they tied it up at 70-70 before going in front at 79-75 on a C.J. Duff basket with 4:47 on the clock.
On the ensuing possession, Evan Kuhlman found Labinowicz in the corner for a triple that got UE back on track. Western Illinois responded with another basket to go back up by three, but the turning point came on the other end when K.J. Riley converted a 3-point play to tie the game at 81-81. WIU retook the lead with 1:26 on the clock when a Webster basket gave them an 86-85 edge. Jawaun Newton would give the Aces the lead for good, knocking down his second field goal of the game with 67 ticks on the clock. A WIU turnover and miss led to a pair of Riley free throws in the final seconds that iced the 90-86 victory.
"When we were down by three, I got the ball and passed it to K.J. That sparked us right there when he got the and-one," DeAndre Williams explained after the win. "We just built off of that, kept fighting and did not give up."
Both teams were lights out on the offensive side. The Leathernecks finished the game shooting 55.6% while the Aces checked in at an even 50%, hitting 30 out of 60 shots. WIU also finished with a 34-27 rebounding advantage. One of the main differences came from the UE defense, which forced 17 turnovers while allowing just six assists.
Next up for the Aces is a home game against Miami Ohio on Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m. inside the Ford Center.
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