Dec. 20, 2011
Postgame Interview with Rob Judson
Play-by-Play Highlights
NORMAL, Ill. -
Career-high efforts by Illinois State guards Tyler Brown and Nic Moore propelled Illinois State (8-3) to a 72-65 win over Arkansas-Little Rock (3-10), Tuesday night on Doug Collins Court at Redbird Arena.
Moore tied his season high with 13 points in the first half, and set a new career high, finishing the game with 17 points. Brown finished the game with a career-high 23 points, making him the third Redbird this season to score 20 or more points in a game.
ISU jumped out to a quick 7-0 lead, thanks to a jumper by Brown and five-straight points from Moore, which forced UALR to call a timeout at the 18:19 mark of the first half. The Redbirds pushed the lead 9-0 soon after with a layup by John Wilkins, before the Trojans scored their first basket at the 17:37 mark on a jumper by D'Andre Williams.
A three-pointer by Moore at the 15:38 mark, his third of the half, extended the ISU lead to 15-2 which forced UALR head coach Steve Shields to call his second timeout of the half. UALR went on a 6-0 run right after, bringing the score to 20-10. ISU answered back with a 12-4 run in just under three minutes of action to take a 32-19 lead. Brown hit back-to-back three-pointers during the run and capped it with a circus layup to finish with eight-straight points.
The Redbirds took a 40-23 lead after a jumper by Wilkins and a three-pointer by Anthony Cousin. The arena soon went into an uproar when Trey Blue was called for a flagrant foul after leading with a high elbow at the 2:02 mark. Things escalated from there, which led to Illinois State head coach Tim Jankovich being ejected from the game after receiving his second technical foul at the 1:31 mark of the first half. UALR took advantage and used a 10-0 run to cut the ISU lead to 40-33, thanks to five points off technical free throws.
The Redbirds took a 42-33 advantage into the locker room. ISU's 42 points in the first half tied a season high through the first 20 minutes of play.
The Trojans went on a 13-0 run early in the second half, which included seven points from Will Neighbour, to take the lead for the first time in the game at 46-44 after a jumper by Taggart Lockhart at the 13:33 mark. After an early bucket by Jackie Carmichael, the Redbirds went scoreless for eight minutes until Brown made a layup at the 11:38 mark to tie up the game at 46-46.
The bucket by Brown kick-started a 9-0 run for the Redbirds, which included five-straight from Brown and a jumper by Jon Ekey, giving ISU a 53-48 lead at the 8:31 mark, with UALR shooting 0-for-6 during that stretch.
The Redbirds used a 6-0 run to extend the lead to 70-61 with 50 seconds left in the game after six-straight free throws, before UALR hit a three-pointer to cut the lead to six with 32 seconds left.
ISU had four players in double figures, led by career high efforts from Brown (23) and Moore (17). It marked the fifth time this season the Redbirds finished the game with at least four players in double digits.
Illinois State will have nine days off for the holidays, returning to play Thursday, Dec. 29, when it hosts Northern Iowa to open Missouri Valley Conference play. The game will be televised on Mediacom, with tipoff scheduled for 7:05 p.m. at Redbird Arena.
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