EVANSVILLE, Ind. – Noah Frederking and Shamar Givance both reached the 1,000-point mark in their careers in the regular season finale on Saturday at the Ford Center. Battling down to the wire, the University of Evansville men's basketball team came up short in an 88-79 contest against Missouri State.
Box Score (PDF)
Givance was the top scorer for the Purple Aces (6-23, 2-16 MVC), recording 20. He was 4-of-5 from outside and all of his points came in the second half. Blaise Beauchamp also finished with four triples on his way to 18. Frederking registered 17 points while draining four of his six outside attempts while Blake Sisley finished with 14.
Pacing the Bears (22-9, 13-5 MVC) was Gaige Prim, who had 28. Isiaih Mosley finished with 20 while hauling in a game-high 11 boards.
Evansville hit one of its opening 10 field goal attempts on the day, but rebounded to finish the game by knocking down 23 of its final 45 tries (51.1%). Frederking, who needed just eight points to reach the milestone, scored UE's opening eight tallies before reaching 1K with a 3-pointer at the 13:28 mark that made it a 12-8 Missouri State lead. The Bears came back with a 9-3 run to take their first double figure lead of the game at 21-11.
Over the final minutes of the opening half, the Aces got within six points before heading to the break trailing the Bears by a 37-29 score. Beauchamp got the team going in the second half, turning a Sisley steal into a 3-pointer in the first UE possession to make it a 5-point game. His shot was a good omen for UE, who shot 57.1% in the final stanza. MSU went back up by seven and held a 43-37 lead with 16:07 remaining in the game.
That is when Evansville stormed back with a 7-0 run to take its first lead of the day. Givance drove for a basket to get it started before Gage Bobe knocked in two free throws. After forcing a miss on the defensive end, Frederking came right down and drained a triple to give UE a 44-43 lead at the 14:08 mark. The Bears responded with a triple on the other end to jump right back in front and embarked on an 11-2 stretch to go up by a 54-46 score over the next four minutes.
Frederking answered with another trey before a floater by Beauchamp made it a single possession game once again. At the 8:21 mark, Beauchamp came through with a triple to give UE a 57-56 lead. A technical foul on Evansville proved to be a turning point with the Bears scoring three points on the possession as part of a 14-4 run that gave them a 70-61 advantage entering the final five minutes.
A tenacious Aces team never backed down. Trailing by as many as 12 in the final three minutes, UE continued to knock down its triple and another from Givance made it an 80-75 game with 56 ticks showing on the clock. As a team, the Aces hit a season-high 16 triples on the day. MSU was able to answer on the other end and would finish with the 88-79 victory.
UE is set to square off against Valparaiso for the third time in two weeks in the Arch Madness opener on Thursday at 8:30 p.m.
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