EVANSVILLE — A criticism facing the University of Evansville men's basketball program in recent years? It struggled in this exact scenario.
The examples go back as far as two years or as recent as last month. The Purple Aces, more often than not, came up short in a game that felt like a coin flip. David Ragland said outright prior to the season that for his team to take a step forward – it had to learn to win.
Evansville did that on Saturday in front of 6,322 fans.
Sokeland: UE vs USI men's basketball game is a step in the right direction
UE emerged from the brink with a 78-76 overtime victory against Southern Indiana Saturday, Nov. 7 in the first River City Classic at Ford Center. It's fair to acknowledge the quality wasn't perfect nor does the result significantly move the metrics. But that game goes differently in the past. That's a starting point for whatever may come next.
"You just have to find a way," Ragland said. "The belief of the group was most important. We've been talking about getting to the next play, just play hard and communicate. Then respond in a positive way. The team did a great job of that."
What the Aces (2-0) needed to pull from wasn't hard to find. This game played out twice in October.
Evansville led by eight with five minutes left at Austin Peay. It rallied down four with 22 seconds remaining against SEMO to force overtime. The Aces lost both exhibition games. Even the season opener against IU Kokomo was made far more difficult than it should have. One could copy and paste the reasons why those occurred.
UE managed to take that first step forward this time. The Aces trailed by four in the final minute of regulation until AJ Casey and Max Langenfeld buried back-to-back three-pointers. Two blocks on the final USI possession forced overtime. Evansville took the lead for good with 1:49 remaining in the extra period.
"That's the great thing about playing the exhibitions," Ragland said. "It's a great opportunity to learn in a real-game experience. We said in the huddle, 'We've been here before.' The lessons we learned from the exhibition games really helped us to be ready to close out the game tonight."
The individual moments are significant on their own. Stacked together equal a victory that probably shouldn't happen.
First was the end of regulation. Casey hit a three-point to cut the deficit to 67-66 with 33 seconds left. After Afan Trnka made two free throws for the Screaming Eagles (1-2), the Aces went back to their All-MVC forward on the wing. That attempt hit the back of the rim. But freshman Caden Symons grabbed the offensive rebound and had the court sense to find Max Langenfeld at the top of the key. Swish with 8.2 seconds left.
The next possession nearly saw UE fold. Trnka found a path to the rim but blocked the attempt against the backboard. Donovan Hunter grabbed the rebound only his shot to be swatted by Aaron Gutman.
"We go through that every day," Bryce Quinet said. "Try to have a perfect 30 seconds of defense. That amount of times we mess up, it sucks in the moment during practice. That prepared for us the game. And everybody knew what to do. It just speaks to the growth we made as a team."
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Overtime played out the same. USI led 74-73 with two minutes remaining when Quinet fouled out. The Aces went back to Langenfeld, who struggled in the first half finding his shooting form. The Florida Atlantic transfer made his fourth three-pointer to give Evansville a cushion it didn't give up.
Evansville got big contributions from its leaders. Quinet played with something to prove with 23 points and seven assists, while Casey scored all 19 points following halftime. It was others who pushed the Aces over the line. Langenfeld finished with 14 points and seven rebounds. Symons knocked down a trio of threes off the bench. Gutman made multiple hustle plays in crunch time.
UE made 15 threes and only committed two turnovers after halftime.
"I was cold and out of my rhythm," Langenfeld said. "At one point, not just me, but everybody on the team just went into a tunnel vision. If you've got the ball and just see the rim, it's kind of like muscle memory. You let it fly."
It should be driven home this was far from an ideal performance. Evansville started slow once again with the offense becoming too reliant on Quinet – the sophomore guard was electric for a long stretch of regulation, to be fair. The defense gave up too much space to USI shooters. And if the Screaming Eagles hit a normal percentage of free throws (14 of 30 on Saturday), the result certainly is reversed.
The upcoming non-conference stretch may not be as forgiving. Evansville, ranked No. 272 on KenPom, travels to Middle Tennessee State and hosts Miami (Ohio) next week. The rest of November also includes visits to Memphis and Missouri. This spot in the season is an ideal time to learn those lessons.
"It was far from perfect," Ragland said. "But guys stepped up and hit shots. We told the group all we need to do to go 1-0 is be one point better. Everyone who went in, for however long they were in there, did something positive. A great game and very electric (atmosphere). The city needed it. Both schools needed it. I'm glad we're on the winning side."
Kyle Sokeland is a sports reporter for the Courier & Press. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @kylesokeland or email at kyle.sokeland@courierpress.com.
This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: Evansville basketball learned from past mistakes in overtime victory over USI