Freshman Noah Frederking set a career-high with 19 points to help the University of Evansville Men's Basketball team take a 79-52 victory against Midway on Sunday afternoon inside the Ford Center.
Frederking knocked down six of his 12 attempts along with three triples to lead all scorers in the contest. It surpassed his previous scoring mark of 14, which came at Bowling Green earlier this month. =Just behind Frederking was senior Blake Simmons who hit double digits for the fifth game in a row for the Purple Aces (10-2). =Simmons finished with 18. A day after setting his career scoring mark, K.J. Riley had the first double-double of his career, notching 15 points and 12 rebounds. He also dished out seven assists.
“I let the game come to me today,” Frederking explained. “I thought we played a good game in the second half. We came out slow in first half, but picked it up in the second half.”
Pacing Midway (4-8) was Kwon Evans, who had 14 points.
“Give Midway a lot of credit. They were the most aggressive team for most of the first half,” Aces head coach Marty Simmons said. “Our guys adjusted at halftime and came out in the second half playing a faster pace and really played better in all areas.”
Midway showed early on that they were going to put up a fight as they scored the first five points of the game including a Bryson Harris 3-pointer. A basket by Dainius Chatkevicius got the Aces on the board at the 18:08 mark, but the Eagles' hot shooting continued as a 6-8 start from the field gave them a 15-6 lead less than five minutes in.
Simmons helped UE make its way back as he posted six Evansville points in a row before a jumper by Saturday's star - Riley - cut the Midway advantage to three at 19-16. Freshman Noah Frederking knocked down his first triple of the day just past the midway point of the half to tie it up for the first time at 21-21. Following an Eagles miss, Simmons converted a triple of his own to give UE its first lead at 24-21.
On the next possession, Midway tied it right back on a Brandon Johnson trey as the Eagles had it tied or stayed within a possession until the final seconds of the half. That is when a pair of free throws by Riley sent the Aces into the break with a 38-33 lead. Simmons had 11 in the half.
After allowing the Eagles to shoot 50% in the opening stanza, the Aces defense clamped down in the final 20 minutes. UE held Midway to just 21.4% shooting while outscoring them by a 41-19 tally. A triple by Frederking at the 17:21 mark gave the Aces their first double figure lead at 45-35. From there, the lead reached its highest point in the final minute with the 27-point victory – 79-52.
Evansville posted a 45-27 mark in rebounding while the offense stood strong, shooting 48.1%. The outside shooting for the Aces continued at a torrid pace as the squad went 5-of-9 from beyond the arc.
The win marked the 29th-consecutive home non-conference win for the Aces. It is one of the ten longest streaks in the nation.
On Wednesday evening, UE travels to Durham, N.C., to take on Duke. The game will be televised live on ESPN2.
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Austin Kraus, a 2017 mechanical engineering graduate, received the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Arthur L. Williston Award at the ASME International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition (IMECE). The event took place November 3-9 in Tampa, Florida. The Williston Medal is awarded to the best paper in an area of engineering-related civic service in a national writing competition. Austin becomes the fifth mechanical engineering student from UE to win the national award over the past 13 years.
