Down 15-1 in the first five minutes and trailing by 11 early in the second half, the Illinois State Redbirds rallied behind 13 points by Taren O'Brien--all in the second half--to beat Southern Illinois 65-56 Thursday at SIU Arena.
The Redbirds, 4-11, 2-4 in the Missouri Valley Conference, got their second win in eight days--both after trailing by 14 points. Zora Skrabalova had 10 points off the bench for the Birds, who hit 15 straight free throws during the contest.
Molly McDowell had 13 of her game-high 22 points in the first half as the Salukis, 4-10, 0-6 got 10 points each from Katie Berwanger and Jodi Heiden.
Redbird coach Jenny Yopp saluted the defense, which held SIU without a field goal in the final 5:17 of the game, and O'Brien's leadership after the junior guard went scoreless in the first half.
"We had to fine-tune our defense at halftime to stop Molly (McDowell) from going to her left and contest Heiden at the three-point line," said Yopp. "Taren hoisted us on her shoulders and controlled the tempo offensively so we could come back."
SIU roared out of the blocks to take that 15-1 lead as McDowell scored seven of those points. SIU made seven of its first nine shots as ISU was going 0-8.
But two steals each by Skrabalova, Katie Donovan and Jaci McCormack helped the Birds collect fast-break baskets enough to slice that lead to 26-22 on Sharon Blade's basket 5:57 before halftime. But that was ISU's last field goal of the half as SIU took a 34-26 lead to intermission and quickly stretched that advantage to 11 on a McDowell three to open the second half.
O'Brien got the Birds rolling with two free throws and a driving layup to start a 10-3 Redbird run to cut the SIU edge to 40-36 with 13:33 left in the game.
SIU led 42-36 when McDowell picked up her fourth foul with 11:30 left. A Stacey White driving basket and two free throws by Blade cut the lead back to 42-40 with 9:46 remaining. After Heiden hit her firnal three-pointer of the night, Skrabalova scored on a power move, White hit a pair of free throws and O'Brien also drained a pair to put ISU ahead 49-48 with 6:46 left, the first Redbird lead since 1-0 in the opening minute.
With McDowell back on the floor, the teams exchanged scores and SIU led 52-51 on Dana Pinkston's jumper with 5:17 left. But that was the last SIU field goal as O'Brien scored five points with the help of two assists from Erin Keeney as the Redbirds took a 60-52 edge with 2:59 left. A minute and 25 seconds later, Keeney's only bucket of the game--a swishing three-pointer from the left corner--sealed the ISU victory.
The Redbirds complete their road trip with a 2 p.m. game Saturday at Evansville.
