In his signature classic hit, Willie Nelson croons I just cant wait to get back on the road again ... The song has special meaning for the Illinois State womens basketball team, which has won its last four road games, as the Redbirds head back on the road to play Thursday at Drake and Saturday at Creighton.
The Redbirds, 7-17 overall, 5-10 in the Missouri Valley, finish the season with three straight road games and figure to need at least one win to earn their first State Farm-Missouri Valley Conference Tournament bid since 1998. Its been more than 14 years since a Redbird team has won five road games in a row. ISU is one-half game behind Evansville (5-9) and a full game behind Wichita State (6-9).
Illinois States road success concerns opposing coaches, including Drakes Lisa Stone.
Illinois State is dangerous because they play so well on the road, said Stone, whose team suffered its first conference home loss of the season Sunday, falling 70-56 to Creighton. The Bulldogs are 13-10 overall, 8-6 in the Valley and battling to remain an upper-bracket seed in the league tournament, which will be March 6-8 in Drakes Knapp Center.
The Bulldogs have perhaps the leagues premiere post player in senior Carla Bennett, who is No. 4 in Missouri Valley Conference career rebounding and blocked shots and No. 6 in career scoring. Her teammate in the post, junior Maureen Head, is battling back from a shoulder injury which has limited her play over the past two weeks.
She and Carla are a great 1-2 punch, said Stone. But our bench has to continue to produce for us.
Stone believes Illinois States perimeter depth provides the greatest challenge of playing the Redbirds.
Illinois State has great guards, said Stone. They all can do a lot of things. (Taren) OBrien is versatile. Katie Donovan is a great player at both ends of the court. Jaci McCormack has had some great games lately. Stacey White can go inside our outside. Well have to take care of the ball as well as we did last time (8 turnovers vs. ISU in a 68-52 win Feb. 1 in Normal).
Yopp thinks Illinois States character comes through on the road.
We want to be as prepared, as rested, as confident and as motivated as we can be, said Yopp. I guess you can say being on the road has been a positive experience for us as long as we can do that. If we are fortunate enough to win and get to the tournament, I guess its a good thing the tournament isnt at Illinois State.
She wants the kind of finishes her team has provided, particularly on defense, during its conference wins this season.
The last four or five games have come down to how we played in the last four or five minutes, said Yopp. We executed extremely well (in road wins) at SMS and Wichita State. For some reason, we didnt get the job done (in home losses) against Evansville and Southern Illinois. Thats something we need to take care of.
Coming off a career-high 22 points against Southern Illinois, McCormack has taken care of the Redbird scoring leadership lately, averaging 12.5 points per game over the past nine contests and shooting 46 percent from three-point range in that time. Senior Sharon Blade has stepped up her rebounding of late with at least six rebounds in her last six games, a 7.3 rebounding average.
ISUs starting time at Creighton is 3 p.m. at Bellevue West High School.
