EVANSVILLE, Ind. – Alex Hemenway went a perfect 5-for-5 from outside to help the University of Evansville men's basketball team defeat Calumet College of St. Joseph by a final score of 95-50 in Evansville's home opener at the Ford Center.
Box Score
Hemenway was 8-of-10 from the floor on his way to a career-high 21 points. His previous scoring mark of 18 points came in against USC Upstate in his time at Clemson.
"He was phenomenal today, it was exciting to see him play like this on Education Day," UE head coach David Ragland exclaimed. "Alex was sitting in those seats when he was younger so it was neat to see his story come full circle."
Hemenway's tally was a game high. Josh Hughes joined him in double figures with 12 points. Trent Hundley finished nine points for the second game in a row while Kaia Berridge scored eight. Leif Moeller completed the game with eight assists and seven points while James Dyson-Merwe led all players with seven rebounds.
After hitting the first shot of the game, Calumet opened a 12-8 advantage knocking down their first attempts from the field. Triples from Alex Hemenway and Leif Moeller quickly put UE in front at 14-12. Hemenway's fourth triple of the game pushed the lead to 20-12 at the 13:28 mark. His trey capped a 5-of-7 start by the Aces from long range.
Evansville continued to add to its lead when Hemenway capped a 5-for-5 start from 3-point range to give UE a 29-15 lead before Josh Hughes added a bucket to extend the advantage to 16 points. The Crimson Wave cut the deficit back down to ten before the Aces rallied to take a 19-point lead at the half. An alley-oop from Moeller to Connor Turnbull completed the first half scoring and made it a 44-25 game.
Hemenway wrapped up the half with 19 points while Moeller registered eight assists in the opening 20 minutes. Josh Hughes finished the period with 10 points.
Field goals by Hughes and Hemenway gave UE its first 20-point lead in the opening two minutes of the second half as the Aces held a 48-28 advantage. Keishon Porter and Moeller converted layups to extend the lead to 24 points at the 15-minute mark. It was all Aces from there as the final score marked the largest advantage for UE at 42 points.
UE shot 49.3% for the game while holding the Crimson Wave to 30.2%. The rebounding battle went the way of the Aces by a final of 49-25. J. Caleb Slawinski was the leading scorer for Calumet scoring 10 points.
On Sunday, the Aces are back home to face Oakland City at 3 p.m.
