March 24, 2008
Box Score |
Notes
NORMAL, Ill. -
Sophomore Dinma Odiakosa scored a team-high 14 points and sophomore Osiris Eldridge added 10 points, but it wasn't enough. The Illinois State men's basketball team fell, 55-48, to Dayton in the second round of the 2008 MasterCard National Invitation Tournament (NIT) Monday night on Doug Collins Court at Redbird Arena. The Redbirds dropped only their second game at home, ending their 2007-08 season with a 25-10 record overall and a 16-2 record at Redbird Arena.
Senior Anthony Slack eclipsed two career milestones during Monday's game. Slack's seven points put him over the 600-point plateau for his career, while his 14 rebounds pushed his career total past the 400-rebound mark. Slack's 14 rebounds also set the Redbird Arena record for rebounds in an NIT contest.
Dayton was led by Brian Roberts, who poured in a game-high 16 points on 4-of-12 shooting from the floor. Dayton distanced itself from Illinois State in the middle of the second half, as the Flyers put together a 17-0 run that lasted 9:03. Dayton also became the first team to defeat Illinois State this season when scoring 60 or fewer points in a game. In the eighteen previous instances when the Redbirds held their opponent to 60 or fewer points, ISU went 18-0.
Illinois State and Dayton battled for position in the game's opening minutes, as the two teams went into the first media timeout tied 7-7 (14:53). After the Flyers grabbed a 14-9 lead, the Redbird offense picked up. The Redbirds followed with a 10-2 run, as Odiakosa paced the `Birds with six points during the spurt. The run was capitalized by Richardson, who swiped an inbound pass after a Redbird basket and made a quick pass to Slack, who threw down an uncontested, one-handed slam, to give ISU a 19-16 lead with 7:05 left in the half.
The two teams continued the back-and-forth affair, as Dayton cut the Redbirds' lead to one at 24-23, after a basket from Jimmy Binnie with 2:00 left in the half. But ISU rattled off four-straight points, as freshman Alex Rubin stepped in front of a pass and started a fastbreak, which Richardson ended with a layup. It looked as if the Redbirds would take a three-point lead into the locker room; however, Dayton's Brian Roberts hit a contested three as the shot clock expired to end the half in a 28-28 deadlock.
The Redbirds came out in the second half aggressive on the defensive end of the floor, forcing the Flyers into taking contested shots, as Dayton missed its first four attempts of the period. The Redbirds grabbed a 32-28 lead, off layups from Odiakosa and Slack, at the first media timeout (15:31). The Flyers weren't able to record their first field goal of the half until the 14:31 mark, when guard London Warren converted a fast break layup, sparking a 17-0 run to give Dayton their largest lead of the half, 45-32, with 7:54 remaining.
The Redbirds struggled to put anything together offensively, as the Redbirds were held without a field goal for more than 10 minutes (10:36), shooting 0-for-13 from the floor (0-for-2 FT) during that span. Odiakosa ended the drought when he converted a layup at the 6:38 mark in the second half, as Illinois State trailed Dayton, 45-34.
Odiakosa's layup awoke the Redbird offense, as Illinois State rallied and put together a 15-6 spurt to cut the Flyers' lead to four, 51-47, with 1:29 left in the game, after Osiris Eldridge drained a three-pointer at the top of the key. But the Redbirds could not get any closer, as Dayton finished the game on a 6-0 scoring run.
