EVANSVILLE - David Jackson scored 13 points, despite shooting just 3-of-15 from the field, but Western Iliinois fell victim to poor free throw shooting in a 70-63 loss at Evansville. The Leathernecks (2-5) earned their first halftime lead since the season-opener, going into the locker room up one, 30-29, but the Purple Aces (3-3) led the entire second half. A Chris Gonzalez three-pointer at the 13:33 mark brought Western within one, 39-38, but Matt Webster sparked a 13-2 Evansville run that lasted six minutes and gave the Aces a 12-point lead with 7:41 to play. The Leathernecks retaliated with back-to-back threes by Gonzalez and Troy Okeson but couldn't hold off the Aces who maintained a single-digit lead the rest of the way. "I have to credit our guys for fighting back," said Leatherneck head coach Derek Thomas. "We had their lead down to five a couple of times late, but we showed a litle bit of our immaturity by taking some shots at the wrong times and getting away from the game plan a little."The Leathernecks shot 43 percent from the field in the first half but hit just 26 percent (8-31) after the break as the Aces connected on 52 percent of their attempts (14-27). Western was plagued by a 57.7 percent (15-26) performance at the free throw line while Evansville was sent to the line 34 times and hit 22 of its attempts on the night. "We were right there," said Thomas. "We just missed too many free throws. "But being there is how you learn. You can't learn what to do in that situation unless you're there in the first place."Webster scored a game-high 29 points against the Leathernecks, who allowed 40 points in the paint and scored just 16 inside. "Our plan was to limit their threes," Thomas said. (Evansville was 2-of-7 from longe range.) "We did a good job executing the plan. We thought if we could take away their outside shots we would have a chance to win. Webster is a big body and he was allowed to bang around in there. He did a great job of taking advantage of what he was allowed to do."Their plan was to take away our inside game. We let them do that and put our best shooters outside. We just missed more shots than usual and had a bad night at the line."The Leathernecks were 8-of-20 from three-point range as Okeson and Gonzalez each went 3-for-5.