Evansville’s Colt Ryan scored a game-high 21 points and the Purple Aces moved to 10-6 overall and 3-1 in the Missouri Valley Conference.
Evansville led 41-27 in the second half, before UNI rallied to take a 57-55 lead with 53.5 seconds left. But Evansville came back and scored on a offensive putback 3-point play from Louis Jones wiht 27.4 seconds left. Down one, UNI’s Anthony James missed the front end of a 1-and-1 and Ryan hit a pair of free throws to put Evansville back up 60-57 with 19 seconds left.
James hit a layup with 14.3 seconds to cut it back to one at 60-59, but Evansville’s Ned Cox hit two free throws with 10.2 left to give the Purple Aces a three-point lead. James’s 3-pointer at the buzzer missed long and the Purple Aces scored a 62-59 win in the McLeod Center.
James led UNI with 19 points as he buried seven of his final 10 shots from the field.