EVANSVILLE, Ind. -- Indiana State battled hard and took an early second half lead, but Evansville was too much offensively for the Sycamores as they captured a 84-68 victory in front of 6,909 fans inside the Ford Center.

The Sycamores fell to 17-13, 9-9 MVC while Evansville improved to 18-13, 10-8 MVC. 

ISU will be the No. 5 seed at next week's Missouri Valley Conference Tournament. The Sycamores will play Evansville on Friday, March 8 at 3:30 p.m. (ET). The Purple Aces captured the No. 4 seed by virtue of today's victory and Northern Iowa's win over Illinois State.

The victory by Evansville breaks a string of eight consecutive seasons in which either the Purple Aces or Sycamores have swept the regular season series and the two teams split this year's matchup. Indiana State had won four in a row over Evansville.

Jake Odum led the Sycamores with 20 points while RJ Mahurin had 16 and Cummings finished with 13. 

Jake Odum, with his 5-of-7 effort from the free throw line, now has 172 free throws on the year and moved him past Larry Bird for fifth on ISU's single season list. Bird's 221 free throws as a senior in '78-79 are the school record.

The Sycamores hit 42.4 percent of their shots from the field (25-of-59) while Evansville shot 54.4 percent (31-of-57), including a 62.1 percent mark after the half.

Odum scored first for the Sycamores with 17:08 left in the first half on a runner in the paint and Dawon Cummings followed that field goal up with an open 3-pointer from the right wing to get ISU within 6-5 at the 16:47 mark. After Evansville had stretched its lead out to seven points, Odum converted a lay-up as the clock ticked under 12 minutes to go to cut the cushion down to just 15-10.

A lay-up from Mahurin with 11:23 remaining answered a UE free throw to make it 16-12, but the Purple Aces scored four in a row to run their lead back out to eight points. Odum hit a pair of free throws with 8:53 on the clock to inch ISU within 21-14, but Evansville countered with a Colt Ryan lay-up at the 8:35 mark to stretch the lead out to 23-14.

Evansville raced out to an 11-point advantage until Odum hit a 3-pointer with just under seven minutes to go and Mahurin followed with a triple of his own at the 6:27 mark to get ISU within 25-20 in lightening quick fashion. The run continued for ISU as Odum was fouled at the 6:02 mark and he hit both free throws to get the Sycamores within a possession at 25-22.

The Purple Aces ran the lead back out to 30-22, but the Sycamore offense got cooking by scoring on four consecutive possessions and eight of 10 points overall to cut the Evansville lead down to 32-30 with 3:17 on the clock. Jordan Nelson answered the ISU spurt as the Aces gathered a loose ball that touched the hands of nearly everyone on the floor and he buried a 3-pointer to stretch the lead out to 35-30.

Trailing 37-32, Cummings hit a breakaway dunk with 1:15 left before the half and Odum drilled a jumper with 47 seconds on the clock to cut the Evansville lead down to just 37-36. Odum had a jumper at the first half buzzer that was just long as the Purple Aces retained the one-point cushion.

Odum scored 17 points in the first half, on a 6-of-10 effort from the floor and a 4-of-4 mark from the free throw line.

It took until the 19:20 mark of the second half, but the Sycamores took their first lead of the game on a Mahurin lay-up off the feed from Odum for a 38-37 advantage. The Sycamores continued their run around the half and made it a 9-0 spurt when Devonte Brown hit a 3-pointer with just over 18 minutes left to give Indiana State a 41-37 lead.

The Purple Aces scored four in a row to knot the game before Mahurin hit a pair of free throws to put the Sycamores back ahead 43-41 with 17:12 remaining. The Purple Aces countered by scoring the game's next 16 points to take a 57-43 lead with 13 minutes left in the contest. Mahurin stopped the bleeding with a 3-pointer at the 12:30 mark to cut the Evansville lead down to 57-46. Cummings hit another trey himself as the clock ticked down towards 11 minutes to go to make it 57-49.

Dawon Cummings stole the ball with just over 10 minutes left and went all the way to the hoop to score on the fast break and converted the conventional 3-point play to cut the Evansville lead down to 60-54.

Playing in final home game for Evansville, senior Colt Ryan scored 31 points to lead the Purple Aces.

Indiana State will return to action in the quarterfinals of the 2013 Missouri Valley Conference Tournament at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis on Friday, March 8. The Sycamores will be the No. 5 seed and will face off against No. 4 Evansville at 3:30 p.m. (ET). The game can be seen on FSN Midwest or ESPN3.