#7 Illinois State (65) vs. #10 Evansville (60)
Records and Tournament Notes: Tonight’s attendance 5,004. The Aces’ 18 field goals marked the third fewest baskets in an MVC tourney game and their .295 field goal percentage was also the third worst for a tournament game.
ILLINOIS STATE WIN: The Redbirds drew a seventh seed despite finishing a three-way tie for fifth place in the regular season MVC race at 9-9 and ISU climbed to 17-15 with the win. Dan Muller is one of four current MVC coaches to have both played and coached in this tournament. Muller is 139-95 in his seventh season at Illinois State and he is 13-3 vs. Evansville. ISU hiked its all-time series advantage to 41-19 over Evansville with its third win over the Aces this season. ISU has beaten UE nine times in a row.
EVANSVILLE LOSS: The Aces finished the year 11-21 with their 12th setback in their last 14 games. Coach Walter McCarty wrapped up his first season as a college head coach at 11-21. Evansville is 9-25 in its history in the MVC tournament and is 1-5 vs. ISU in the tournament.
ILLINOIS STATE NOTES: Milik Yarbrough with 18 points, 16 in the second half, and Fayne with 17 led ISU scoring and Fayne’s 10 rebounds helped ISU to a 43-42 edge on the boards. The Redbirds’ Phil Fayne had three blocked shots, the 12th time this season he’s had multiple blocks. Milik Yarbrough missed his first six shots before getting his first FG of the game with 16:20 to play. Matt Chastain had eight rebounds to go wit his seven points, topping his previous three-game total of six combined points for ISU.
EVANSVILLE NOTES: UE had its lowest FG percentage of the season at .295 (18/61) with its previous low .308 (16/52) vs. Jacksonville State Dec. 15. Evansville is 9-25 in its history in the MVC tournament and is 1-5 vs. ISU in the tournament. Marty Hill led Evansville with 16 points, including 11 in the second half. K.J. Riley added 15 points and a career-best two blocked shots. Evan Kuhlman, wh scored 10 points, tied a career high with three steals. Shamar Givance had a career-best seven rebounds.
First Half: The Redbirds led 4-1 at the first break in the slow-paced contest and it was still only 10-9 midway in the half as ISU had connected on just .214 of its FG tries (3/14) while Evansville was only at .167 (3/18) from the floor. With four minutes left in the half, it was still only a 22-20 ISU lead with the Redbirds up to .280 (7/25) from the floor while Evansville lagged at .207 (6/29). K.J. Riley hit a three from the right corner to give Evansville a 23-22 lead with three minutes left and the Aces quickly expanded that margin to 26-22. Isaac Gassman hit a trey with half a minute left to push ISU in front 27-26 but Marty Hill connected from the lane to give the Aces a 28-27 margin at the intermission. This is Evansville’s first halftime lead in its last 10 games. Phil Fayne led the Redbirds with 12 points and was 5/11 from the floor while the other four ISU starters had not connected for a field goal in a combined nine attempts. First half shooting finished with ISU at .321 (9/28) and Evansville at .257 (9/35). Riley led Evansville with 9 points. Evansville amassed a 25-21 halftime rebound margin.
Second Half: Milik Yarbrough scored 13 of ISU’s last 22 points in the final 7:45 of the game. Phil Fayne, who had just eight points in his last game vs. Evansville, opened the second half with a basket in the lane to put ISU in front 29-28 and move to 14 points for the game. The Aces then bolted out to a 37-30 lead five minutes into the half. The team’s top scorer, Milik Yarbrough got two fouls in two seconds at the 15:06 and 15:04 marks of the half to go to the bench with four fouls for the game. ISU pushed ahead by 11 at 44-33 but a 7-0 Evansville run cut the gap to 44-40 with just under 11 minutes to play and Marty Hill buried a long trey from the right wing with 9:21 to play to make it 44-43 with a 10-0 run. Evansville went ahead 45-44 to extend its run to 12-0 on a basket. Yarbrough snapped UE’s scoring run with two FTs at the 7:45 mark to push ISU back in front 46-45. Yarbrough scored with 6:41 to play for the Redbirds’ first basket since the 14:21 mark, a gap of 7:30 without a FG. ISU wrapped six FTs around Yarbrough’s basket to push out to a 52-47 edge with five minutes to play. The Redbirds were still in front 59-55 with a minute left and Yarbrough scored to stretch the ISU edge to six. John Hall nailed a trey from the right corner with 21 seconds left to make it 63-60 but Yarbrough had two final FTs at the seven-second mark.
