Feb. 13, 2008
NORMAL, Ill. -
Osiris Eldridge has 15 first-half points to lead Illinois State to a 39-26 halftime lead over visiting Missouri State at Wednesday's Missouri Valley Conference tilt on Doug Collins Court at Redbird Arena. ISU's 13-point advantage represents the Redbirds' largest halftime lead since jumping out to a 16-point first-half lead against Wichita State on Jan. 16.
Illinois State jumped out to an 8-3 lead in the opening stages behind Eldridge and Dom Johnson's three points apiece. But MSU answered with a 5-0 spurt to tie the game at 8-8 at the first media timeout (15:42). Justin Fuehrmeyer had two three-pointers in the stretch for the Bears.
The Redbirds built as large as a six-point lead twice in the ensuing four minutes, but Missouri State answered with a 9-3 run, capped off by seven-consecutive points by Dale Lamberth, to take a 21-18 lead, before Eldridge's three-pointer tied the score at the ensuing media timeout (7:58). ISU forced the Bears into their second timeout just under three minutes later (4:45) after stringing together a 9-0 spurt to take a 30-21 lead. Eldridge had two treys in the stretch.
Missouri State's scoring draught lasted 5:47, before Shane Laurie's three-pointer cut the lead to 30-24 with 3:17 left in the first half. Brandon Sampay helped the Redbirds build their largest lead of 13 points at halftime by scoring the final six points of the stanza. He started the flurry with back-to-back free throws, and added two-consecutive putbacks, including one as time expired.
The Redbirds owned a 19-15 first half rebounding advantage, and shot 46.7 percent, compared to MSU's 35.7 percent shooting mark.
