Vince Greene scored 20 of his season-high 23 points in the second half and broke a 48-year-old Illinois State record by hitting his 36th straight free throw as Illinois State stormed back from a 17-point deficit to a 73-68 win over Drake in a Missouri Valley Conference game at Redbird Arena.
Greene made all of his eight free throws in the second half, including four to help put the game away. The previous record, set in 1956 by Gene Jontry, was the oldest record in the Illinois State record book. Buckets by Greene and Trey Guidry, who had 20 points, capped a 30-10 Redbird second half run to give the Birds their first lead, 60-57, with 3:20 left to play. During that run, Greene scored 14 and Guidry had 11 of ISUs 30 points.
Illinois State, 9-18, 4-14 in the Valley, beat Drake for the 39th time in 59 meetings. Drake, 12-15, 7-11 in the Valley, was led by Lonnie Randolph with 16 points and Chaun Brooks with 12. Neil Plank scored 11 points to give the Redbirds three players in double figures as ISU shot 54 percent from the field for the game. ISU held Drake to 6-20 second-half field goals after the Bulldogs made their first three shots after intermission to build a 47-30 lead.
The Bulldogs jumped out to a 14-5 lead on the strength of 6-of-8 field goal shooting in the first 4:30 of the game. Six different Bulldog players scored during that run. Drake inched out to a lead which reached 13 points on Pete Eggers jumper with 10:52 left. Drake led 39-30 at halftime. Klayton Korver and Randolph opened the second half with three-point baskets, then Nick Grant rebounded his own miss to put the Bulldogs ahead 47-30.
Greene started the Redbird rally with a layup at 16:12. He scored six points of a 12-4 Redbird blitz which closed the gap to 51-42 with 12:28 left. Chaun Brooks broke the Redbird string with a jumper to put Drake up 53-42, but a Guidry three, two Greene free throws and layups by Guidry and Greene sliced Drakes edge to 53-51 with 8:17 left. Echols free throw 28 seconds later gave ISU 10 straight points and, after David Bancroft hit the first of two Drake free throws, Greene brought ISU even at 54-54 with 6:38 left on an eight-foot one-hander.
Brooks put Drake back up 56-54 with a jumper at 6:11, but Echols answered with two free throws. After Josh Powell split two free throws, Greene gave ISU its first lead of the game, 58-57, with a 10-foot jumper with 4:01 left. After another Redbird defensive stop, Guidry swished a pull-up jumper in the lane with 3:20 left and ISU led 60-57.
Bancroft drove for a bucket and one three-point play to knot the score at 60-apiece. Greene untied it with a streaking layup eight seconds later and ISU led 62-60. Quantel Murphy split two free throws with 2:46 left and Guidry answered with a trey at 2:16. Powell scored inside for Drake, but Guidry drained his fourth three-pointer of the half with 57 seconds left and ISU led 68-63. A free throw by Greg Dilligard and four more by Greene in the final seconds put the game away for Illinois State, and earned Greene a spot in the record book.
Illinois State returns to action Friday afternoon. The Redbirds will renew the Interstate-74 rivalry in the Friday play-in game against Bradley. Tip-off is at 2:30 p.m.
