Illinois States Trey Guidry and Marcus Arnold combined for 35 points to lead the Redbirds to a 63-37 Missouri Valley Conference win over Indiana State Saturday afternoon at Redbird Arena.
With the win the Birds improved to 7-15 on the season and 3-11 in league play, while the Sycamores dropped their seventh straight to fall to 8-14 and 4-10.
The Redbirds used a stiffling defense in the first half, holding Indiana State to a Redbird Arena first half low 11 points. Illinois State opened the game on a 10-2 run with seven points coming inside the paint from Marcus Arnold (4) and Greg Dilligard (3). Sophomore Chris Burras scored six straight Redbird points, as the Birds bumped the lead to 20-7 with 5:11 left in the frame.
Trey Guidry poured in two of his first half treys in the final three minutes of the half to push the Redbirds to a 28-11 advantage at the intermission. Indiana State ended the half shooting 26.3 percent from the field, including 1-of-6 on threes, and were 0-for-6 from the free throw line.
Dilligard opened the second half with a three-point play, before Indiana State rattled off six straight points to close the Redbird lead to 31-17. Illinois State held off the rally and pushed the lead back to 20 points, 43-23, with 12 minutes remaining. Guidry nailed back-to-back treys, his fourth and fifth of the game, to push the Redbird lead to 50-23 at the 10:23 mark, their largest of the game.
Guidry led all scorers with 21 points, while Arnold had 14. David Moss scored nine points to lead the Sycamores.
Illinois State returns to action on Wednesday when the Redbirds renew the Interstate-74 rivalry at Bradley. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:35 p.m.
