EVANSVILLE, Ind. – Six University of Evansville players reached double figures, but a late rally by the Purple Aces men's basketball team came up short with Southern Illinois taking a 98-91 win on Wednesday evening inside the Ford Center.

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Box Score (PDF)

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Leading the Aces (10-20, 4-13 MVC) was Shea Feehan, who posted 17 points.  He was 3-for-6 from long range and hit four free throws to remain perfect in league play.  K.J. Riley notched 16 while Marty Hill finished with 14. Noah Frederking and Dainius Chatkevicius recorded 11 points apiece.  Chatkevicius led everyone with 10 rebounds. Armon Fletcher was the leading scorer in the game, registering 34 points on 12-of-21 shooting for SIU (16-14, 9-8 MVC).
 
Southern Illinois shot 60.6% in the first half on their way to a 50-36 halftime lead.  The Salukis had it going early on, posting the first eight points of the night before extending the advantage to 13-2 just over three minutes in.
 
Evan Kuhlman helped the Aces get back on track, hitting a three as the Aces cut the deficit to four - 15-11 - at the 14:55 mark.  K.J. Riley also added a triple in the run. SIU continued to keep the pressure on, extending the lead to as many as 18 points (35-17) with 7:51 left in the opening half.  UE was able to cut the deficit to 47-36 on a John Hall layup in the final minute, but a long triple at the buzzer saw the Salukis take a 14-point lead into the half.
 
Out of the break, SIU scored the first basket, but the Aces came back with five in a row including a Marty Hill trey that cut the deficit to 52-41.  The Salukis rebounded with the next seven tallies to match their largest lead of 18. Kuhlman hit from downtown for the second time to end the stretch.
 
After SIU pushed the lead to a game high of 19, Evansville kicked it into high gear scoring the next 11 points.  Shea Feehan had eight of them with a pair of triples while Shamar Givance added his first long ball of the night to make it a 65-57 game with 12 minutes left.    SIU countered with a 9-2 stretch that extended the lead back to 13.
 
Evansville never gave up and continued to fight back.  With under five minutes remaining, another Kuhlman triple cut the deficit to nine and following an SIU miss, Noah Frederking knocked down his third 3-pointer to make it an 81-76 game.  With 36 ticks on the clock, the Aces got even closer. Marty Hill hit his second from outside to cut the lead to 93-89, but the comeback came up just short with the Salukis hanging on for the 98-81 win.
 
SIU finished the game shooting 60.3%, hitting 35 out of 58 tries.  Evansville had a solid shooting night, finishing at 50%. The Aces finished the second half hitting 17 out of 29 tries, good for a tally of 58.6%.
 
The regular season comes to an end on Saturday when the Aces take on Valparaiso in a 1 p.m. contest.  UE will open Arch Madness next week on Thursday evening at 8:30 p.m. in St. Louis. The opponent will be determined after all regular season games are completed.
 

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