EVANSVILLE, Ind. – Urbana men’s basketball dropped a non-conference road game at Southern Indiana Friday night, 95-69, inside the Physical Activities Center on USI’s campus.
Urbana dropped to 1-10 on the season, and 1-3 against non-league opponents, while the host USI Screaming Eagles won their seventh straight to improve to 8-2 overall.
The Blue Knights never led and trailed by 15 at halftime, 49-34. UU stayed within single digits for the majority of the opening period, and trailed by three when Roy Hatchett Jr.‘s layup at the 10:14 mark made it 20-17 USI. However, the Eagles responded with a 13-2 run over the next three minutes and UU would never recover.
The Eagles closed the first half with 15 points off Urbana turnovers and grabbed nine offensive boards.
Urbana only trimmed its deficit down to single digits once more during the rest of the game. Freshman forward Abdul Kanu‘s layup with 14:05 remaining made the score 58-50 after UU had trailed by 17 shortly after the break.
Sophomore sharpshooter Ethan Snapp ignited the quick spurt for UU with back-to-back treys prior to Kanu’s putback.
That proved to be as close as the short-handed Blue Knights could get as fatigue set in. The Screaming Eagles outscored the Blue Knights 37-19 over the final 13 minutes of action.
Junior guard Malik Jacobs secured his third straight 20-point outing to lead the way for Urbana, but he was limited to only four points in the second stanza. Jacobs scored a season-high 16 first-half points after only missing one shot and going 3 of 3 from three-point range.
Snapp registered 13 points for his sixth double-digit performance and hit three treys. Sophomore forward Mike Ryan also reached double figures with 12 points on 5-of-10 shooting and two three’s while Kanu finished with a career-high nine points and four boards.
Urbana shot the ball well at 51 percent overall from the floor with nine 3-pointers, but Southern Indiana only missed six shots in the second half (17-23) to shoot 74 percent in the period and 62 percent overall with 11 three’s. The Screaming Eagles outscored the Blue Knights 38-18 in the paint and led by as much as 31 in the final minutes. USI held a 31-22 edge on the glass and only turned the ball over nine times while forcing 14 UU turnovers.
Alex Stein led all scorers with 25 points on 9-of-14 shooting for the Screaming Eagles. Nate Hansen also scored 20 points (7-10 FGs).
Up Next
Urbana returns to action in two weeks after the Holiday break it travels to West Virginia Wesleyan on Thursday, Jan. 4. UU’s next home game is slated for Thursday, Jan. 11 against Fairmont State.
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