EVANSVILLE, Ind. – After leading by 15 points at halftime, UIC pulled away for an 84-46 victory over the University of Evansville men's basketball team on Wednesday evening at the Ford Center.

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Box Score

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Trent Hundley led the Purple Aces with 12 points as he converted four 3-pointers. Josh Hughes and Leif Moeller scored nine points apiece. Hughes led the team with six rebounds. Five UIC players reached double figures with Andy Johnson leading the way with 17 points. He was a perfect 5-of-5 from long range.
 
"UIC is playing extremely well and have been one of the best teams in our league over the last several weeks. Tip your hat to them for how they played," UE head coach David Ragland said. "They took advantage of our lack of depth. We did not shoot the ball well, but we need to have more resistance on the defensive end. Our guys are extremely competitive and are battling through this."
 
Early on, it was a defensive battle with UIC holding a 4-0 lead just over four minutes in. Evansville opened the evening 0-for-4 from the field while committing four turnovers. Alex Hemenway got the Purple Aces on the board with a layup at the 15:23 mark. After a 3-pointer by the Flames put them up 9-4, Trent Hundley countered with a triple to cut the deficit down to two points.
 
UIC fought right back, opening a 16-9 edge thanks to four in a row from Sam Silverstein. Hundley's second 3-pointer was followed by a Kaia Berridge trey that cut deficit to a point – 16-15 – inside of 10 minutes remaining in the period. Over the next four minutes, the Flames took their first double digit lead, utilizing a 12-2 run to go up 28-17 with 5:24 remaining in the period.
 
Two minutes later, Hundley's third field goal from downtown made it a 7-point game, however, UIC made another rally. They scored the final eight points of the half to take a 38-23 lead into the break. The Flames shot 50.0% in the half while holding the Aces to 36.4%. Josiah Hammons registered 12 in the period while Hundley led UE with 9 points.
 
Knocking down three of their first outside tries of the second half, UIC opened a 47-23 lead in the opening three minutes of the second half. UE missed its first five field goal tries of the latter stanza before Hemenway knocked down the first Aces basket of the period.
 
The lead for UIC remained between 22 and 25 points through the middle portions of the half before they continued to pull away. Up 56-34, the Flames scored the next nine points to go up by 31 inside of seven minutes left. Their largest lead was the final tally of 84-46.
 
For the game, UIC shot 53.3% while the Aces finished at 32.7%. The Flames also finished with a 43-23 rebounding advantage. UE returns to the road on Saturday for a 3 p.m. game at Murray State.