Nov. 29, 2009
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Tournament Central
NORMAL, Ill. - Osiris Eldridge poured in 28 points and Jackie Carmichael notched his first career double-double to lift Illinois State to a 80-77 win over St. Bonaventure in the Basketball Travelers Classic Championship on Doug Collins Court at Redbird Arena Sunday.
Eldridge, who was voted the tournament's most valuable player, hit 10-of-16 shots from the floor, including six three-pointers and scored a career-best 16 points. Carmichael also pulled down a game-high 10 rebounds as Illinois State (6-0) won its sixth-consecutive game to start the season.
Sunday's game was close to the final seconds. After a bucket by St. Bonaventure's Ogo Adegboye cut the lead to three, Lloyd Phillips missed a pair of free throws with three seconds left but helped seal the win by intercepting the ensuing inbounds pass. Phillips joined Eldridge and Carmichael in double figures with 10 points.
St. Bonaventure (4-2) stormed out to a 21-13 advantage as Chris Matthews hit his first three three-point attempts and scored nine of the Bonnies first 13 points. Andrew Nicholson, the Bonnies' post who had registered first-half double-digit scoring efforts in each of the first two tournament games, was forced to the bench at the 15:14 mark with two early fouls and the Redbird big men went to work on the deficit.
Kellen Thornton, Dinma Odiakosa and Carmichael combined to score the next 12 points for the Redbirds during a 14-3 run to gain the lead. Carmichael scored all six of his first-half points during the run and Odiakosa had four during the rally, including a lay-up at 7:08 to give the Redbirds a 25-24 advantage. Matthews tossed in seven more points before the break to lead all scorers with, and teammate Malcolm Eleby hit the last of St. Bonaventure's six first-half three pointers to give the Bonnies a 39-37 lead at half.
Eldridge scored the first seven points of the second half for ISU during a 11-2 run to give Illinois State its largest lead at 48-41. Nicholson picked up his third and fourth fouls in the first five minutes of the second half and was again sent to the bench. The Redbirds kept St. Bonaventure at arm's length for much of the second half but Matthews hit three separate three-pointers in the final seven minutes to pull the Bonnies within a single basket. Matthews' first, at 7:10, pulled St. Bonaventure within two, but that was the closest the Bonnies would get until Adegboye's long two in the waning seconds.
Matthews finished the game 8-of-11 from beyond the three-point line and tied Eldridge for the game lead with 28 points. Jonathan Hall (15) and Eleby (14) also reached double figures for St. Bonaventure. Nicholson, who logged just 15 minutes because of foul trouble, was limited to two points and three rebounds in the contest. He fouled out with 6:27 remaining in the game. St. Bonaventure shot 50 percent (28-of-56) from the field and 58.8 percent (10-of-17) from beyond the arc.
Eldridge was joined on the Basketball Travelers Classic All-Tournament Team by Odiakosa (Illinois State), Nicholson (St. Bonaventure), Matthews (St. Bonaventure) and Michael Deloach (Norfolk State).
Illinois State continues its current five-game home stand against Central Michigan, Saturday at 7:05 p.m., and plays host to Niagara, last season's ESPN BracketBusters opponent on Dec. 13 at 2:05 p.m.
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