TERRE HAUTE, Ind.  – Indiana State trailed by five points with three and a half minutes to go, but a 7-0 Sycamore run gave the Trees the lead with a minute to play. ISU hit all six of their free throw attempts in the final minute to fend off Evansville for the 64-62 road victory.
 
ISU has won back-to-back league contests to improve to 16-11, 9-7 MVC while Evansville fell to 9-20, 0-16 MVC. The Sycamores are just one game behind Southern Illinois and Bradley for third place in the league standings with two games to play.
 
Christian Williams led the way with 16 points and he was 6-of-7 from the free throw line while Tyreke Key added 12 and Jordan Barnes chipped in 10. The Sycamores finished the game 19-of-21 from the free throw line (90.5 percent) and made their last 12 attempts of the game from the charity stripe. Key led the way with six rebounds in the contest. Indiana State scored 21 fast break points in the contest.
 
Most of the damage was done inside the arc, as the Sycamores barely extended their streak of consecutive games with a 3-pointer made to 370 games on Cobie Barnes' trifecta in the 2^nd half. Barnes scored nine points in the game on the strength of a 4-of-4 shooting performance to tie his career high set earlier this season at home against Evansville.
 
Trailing by a pair with 5:32 remaining, Jake LaRavia was fouled on the way to the bucket and hit both free throws to knot the game at 48. The Purple Aces' Noah Frederking was 1-of-2 at the free throw line, and Christian Williams did the same with 4:54 remaining to once again level the score at 49. Frederking hit his second 3-pointer of the game to push Evansville ahead by a trey, but Jordan Barnes hit a pair of free throws with 4:24 remaining to draw within 52-51.
 
Evansville ran their lead out to 56-51 but the Sycamores got a pair of charity tosses from Barnes and then a Jake LaRavia lay-up with 1:56 to go after a Purple Aces prayer at the shot clock hit lots of iron but no net. LaRavia's bucket cut the UE lead down to 56-55. After an Evansville turnover, Christian Williams converted a conventional 3-point play with 1:07 on the clock to make it a 7-0 Sycamore run and give ISU a 58-56 lead.
 
DeAndre Williams hit 1-of-2 at the free throw line with 30 seconds to go to draw Evansville with a point. Christian Williams was fouled with 24.9 seconds to go and hit both free throws to stretch the Sycamore lead out to 60-57. KJ Riley was fouled with 12.5 seconds left and hit both and the Indiana State lead stood at 60-59. Jordan Barnes hit two free throws with nine seconds to go and Christian Williams hit two more with five seconds left as ISU won 64-62. Shamar Givance had two free throws with 1.7 seconds left and missed the second one but was called for going over the free throw line too early.
 
Jake LaRavia opened the Sycamore scoring to start the game and had to sit extended minutes due to foul trouble. But he also opened the second half with a score inside to trim a six-point halftime deficit down to 26-22. After Evansville hit the first 3-pointer of the game for either team, LaRavia grabbed an offensive rebound and Christian Williams found Tre Williams for a dunk with just over 17 minutes remaining to cut the Evansville advantage down to 29-24.
 
Key hit a turnaround jumper as the clock ticked towards the 15 minute mark which made it 32-26. Indiana State scored from distance for the first time in the contest with 14:29 to go when Cobie Barnes drilled a long one and then his steal and fast break lay-up with 13:36 to go make it a 7-0 run and drew the Sycamores within 32-31. Evansville had to burn a pair of timeouts during the next offensive possession and the defense held strong before Bronson Kessinger scored inside to give the Sycamores a 33-32 lead. The Purple Aces would answer with a jumper in the paint as they took a one-point advantage.
 
ISU's 9-0 run featured nearly six minutes without a field goal by the Purple Aces. Kessinger would score again inside with just over 12 minutes remaining as the back-and-forth game swayed towards the Sycamores at 35-34. Evansville's KJ Riley knotted the game at 35 with a free throw, but Christian Williams pulled up at the foul line for a jumper to push ISU ahead 37-35. Five points in a row staked the Purple Aces to a three-point lead before Kessinger scored for the third time in the second half to draw ISU within 40-39.
 
Evansville was whistled for a technical foul with just under seven to go and Jordan Barnes hit a pair at the line to draw the Sycamores within a point. Barnes would then drive the lane line as the clock ticked towards the six minute mark to draw ISU within 48-46.
 
Jake LaRavia scored the Sycamores' first field goal of the game with 17:29 remaining which followed a pair of Tyreke Key charity tosses to stake Indiana State to a 4-2 early cushion. Cobie Barnes beat the defense twice in the first half, including a second time off the feed from Bronson Kessinger with 11:48 remaining which gave the Sycamores a 10-8 lead.
 
Key heated up in the later portion of the first half as he scored six in a row for the Sycamores, including a jumper at the 5:53 mark which knotted the contest at 16. Christian Williams juked the defense on a shot fake and drove in for an easy lay-up on the next possession which answered an Evansville bucket and tied the game at 18. Williams hit a runner with two minutes remaining in the opening stanza to get the Sycamores within two points but Evansville would score twice in the waning moments to take a 26-20 lead into halftime.
 
Both teams finished the first half 0-for-3 from 3-point range.
 
Evansville was led in scoring by KJ Riley with 15 points.
 
Indiana State travels to Carbondale, Ill., on Wednesday, February 26 as they take on Southern Illinois. Tip-off is set for 8:00 p.m. (ET).