TERRE HAUTE, Ind. -- Senior night is always an emotional, hard fought game and for seniors Brandon Murphy, Demonte Ojinnaka, Brenton Scott and Qiydar Davis the 2018 edition was exactly that as tough defense was needed for the entire 40 minutes and resulted in a thrilling 58-53 victory over Evansville in front of 4,295 fans inside Hulman Center.

The Sycamores improved to 12-17, 7-10 MVC while the Purple Aces fell to 16-14, 6-11 MVC. ISU improved to a perfect 19-0 under eighth-year head coach Greg Lansing when holding teams to 53 points or less. It was also coach Lansing's 132nd career victory moving him just two behind Royce Waltman for No. 2 on the Sycamore Basketball all-time wins list.

Indiana State's victory coupled with Bradley's win at Missouri State tonight sets up a huge regular season finale on Saturday. ISU will need to capture their fourth MVC road victory of the season against the Braves and UNI will need to hold serve at home against Missouri State to give the Sycamores the No. 6 seed at Arch Madness and avoid Thursday's opening round.



While it was Senior Night, the Sycamores were led by a sophomore as Jordan Barnes hit 5 3-pointers in the game and added four big free throws down the stretch to score 19 points. He just missed his first career double-double as he added a career-high tying nine rebounds. Also in double figures scoring was Qiydar Davis who scored 12 points and added four rebounds with a pair of big steals. Brandon Murphy chipped in with nine rebounds also.

Shooting was at premium for both teams as the Sycamores hit 17-of-59 shots, but eight of them were from long range (28.8 percent). Evansville was limited to just 18-of-63 from the field (28.6 percent), including five from long range. ISU held a 47-46 lead on the glass, including an 18-9 edge in second chance points.

Demonte Ojinnaka drained a key 3-pointer with 5:39 remaining which stretched the Sycamore lead to 49-43 before Ryan Taylor of Evansville countered with one of his own to cut the cushion down to just three points. Tyreke Key grabbed a defensive rebound with 50 seconds remaining and hit both free throws to push the Sycamores ahead 55-48. K.J. Riley hit two on his own end with 25 seconds remaining to get within five before Key connected on 1-of-2 for the 56-50 lead with 13 seconds remaining.

Ryan Taylor buried a 3-pointer on the next trip down to shave the lead down to three points but Jordan Barnes sealed the 58-53 victory with two more charity tosses at the nine second mark.

Taylor connected on a jumper with 16:46 left in the first half to stretch their lead out to five points, but the Sycamores scored six in a row to take an 8-7 lead on an Emondre Rickman free throw with 13:58 remaining. Evan Kuhlman came back with a trifecta for the two-point lead as a slow 7-0 run pushed the Evansville lead back out to 14-8 with 10:23 to go before the half. ISu scored the games next six points on consecutive trifectas by Key and Barnes to knot the game at 14 at the 9:02 mark.

Barnes' second trifecta of the game came with 4:33 remaining to stake the Sycamores to a 21-18 lead and that would be the final Sycamore field goal of the opening stanza. Evansville knotted the game with 1:55 remaining and both teams went into the half tied at 21.
Barnes answered an early second half Purple Aces' run with a 3-pointer at the 19:25 mark to tie the game at 24 and sparked an 8-0 run which was capped by a pair of Key free throws for the 29-24 advantage. Bradley took a 34-31 lead, but Barnes came back with a triple with 14:02 to go which tied the game at 34. The game saw its 11th tie at 37-37 when Scott drained a jumper with 11:01 to go.

After Evansville took a 41-40 lead, Murphy scored inside to regain a one-point Sycamore advantage which began a 6-0 run including a steal and dunk from Davis for the 46-41 lead with 6:51 remaining.

Only one reached double figures for Evansville as Ryan Taylor hit 11-of-30 shots to score 30 points and added eight rebounds.

Indiana State concludes the regular season on Saturday, February 24 when they travel to Bradley for a nationally-televised contest on CBS Sports Network. The game will tip-off at 4 pm (ET) from Carver Arena in Peoria.