EVANSVILLE, Ind. - The Fighting Leatherneck men's basketball struggled to take care of the basketball Saturday evening (Feb. 18) as they dropped a 68-45 road contest to the Purple Aces of Evansville in their first-ever BracketBusters game. Western falls to 14-12 overall after the loss, while Evansville improved to 14-13.

Senior guard Ceola Clark III led Western with a team-high 11 points, while junior forward Terell Parks grabbed a game-high 12 rebounds.

Clark's double-digit performance marked the 16th-straight of its kind.

Western turned the ball over 23 times in the game, the most in a single-game this season. The only other game in which they had 20+ was at Michigan (20).

The Purple Aces were led by Colt Ryan who finished with a game-high 20 points, eight assists, and four steals.

Four minutes into the game the two teams were tied 5-5, but the Purple Aces put together a 10-0 run to pull away midway through the first. Back-to-back layups from junior forward Jack Houpt and freshman guard Jalen Packer ended the Leatherneck scoring drought and cut their deficit to six points, 15-9.

The two teams battled evenly for the next four minutes until the 5:33 mark when Evansville's Colt Ryan hit two triples, giving the Purple Aces a 26-14 lead heading into the break.

Parks and Houpt each tallied four points to lead Western in the first, while Parks grabbed eight rebounds in the half. The Leathernecks struggled from the field in the first, shooting just 27.8% to the Purple Aces' 39.1%.

Turnovers also hurt Western midway through the game as they suffered 16 to UE's eight.

The Leathernecks opened the second with a 5-0 run, but the Aces answered with a 4-0 run of its own, building their lead back up to 11, 30-19, with 15 minutes left in regulation.

Western was forced to burn a timeout with 13:25 left in the game after Evansville built its lead up to 14 points, 38-24, the largest of the game to that point.

With eight minutes left in the game, the Purple Aces had built their lead up to 17 points, 51-34, before closing out the game with a 68-45 victory.

Western continues its road swing next week with its final two Summit League games of the season, first at South Dakota State on Thursday (Feb. 23), followed by a visit to North Dakota State on Saturday (Feb. 25).

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