Tarise Bryson scored 20 of his game-high 31 points in the second half as Illinois State exploded for 51 second-half points en route to its sixth straight win with a 89-60 victory over Georgia Southern at Redbird Arena Thursday.
Bryson, the leading scorer in the Missouri Valley Conference, connected on all seven of his second half field goal attempts, including four three-pointers, as Illinois State outscored Georgia Southern 51-26 in the decisive second half.
The Redbirds, 7-1, capitalized on 27 Eagles turnovers, including 14 by Sean Peterson, to key an explosive running game in the second half. The Redbirds ran early and often in the second half with a 30-7 advantage on the break keyed by a season-high 13 steals.
The running game led to several easy baskets for the Birds who converted 18-of-32 second half shots and 34-of-66 for the game. Included in the many easy field goal attempts were rim-rocking dunks by
Dirk Williams,
Dan Luczywko and two by
Shedrick Ford, all of which brought the 6,245 in attendance to their feet.
Sparking the Redbird offense was the tenacious play of a scrappy Redbird defense which held the Eagles to 40 percent shooting. Hustling on every possession, four of five Redbirds hit the floor in search of a loose ball on one possession, bringing the crowd and ISU head coach
Tom Richardson to a frenzy.
Richardson garnered Burlwell Oil 'Sub of the Game' honors for his cheerleading effort.
Its unbelievable to play in front of a crowd like this tonight, said
Shawn Jeppson. The crowd was definitely the sixth man tonight.
Bench play continued to spark the Redbirds as the ISU reserves outscored their counterparts 37-11. Jeppson, who scored 10 points and dished out three assists, led the charge for the bench brigade while
Traves Wilson added seven points, three rebounds and five assists.
Ford and
Cedric Knight also added another strong performance for the Redbird front court, adding 12 points and seven rebounds and seven points and four rebounds respectively.
Although blanked in the scoring column,
Randy Rice added another solid performance at the point for the Birds with five assists and two steals.
Georgia Southern, which played without leading scorer Julius Jenkins, were led by Peterson with 18 points. Kashiem Lathan added 16 points and a game-high 11 rebounds and Todd Shipley added 13 points.
Illinois State plays at Western Illinois on December 31 before beginning conference play against Indiana State at Redbird Arena on January 6.
