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NORMAL, Ill. – The Illinois State men's basketball team defeated Southern Indiana, 88-81, in ISU's only exhibition game of the season on Doug Collins Court at Redbird Arena Sunday afternoon.
DeVaughn Akoon-Purcell led the Redbirds with what would be a career-high 25 points on an efficient 11-15 shooting from the field. However, exhibition statistics do not officially count toward career highs. Paris Lee came off the bench and scored 14 points, dished out three assists and matched what would be a career high with six steals.
As a team, ISU shot 50.0 percent (34-for-68) from the field while holding the Eagles to 41.1 percent shooting. The Redbirds outscored the Eagles, 52-38, in the paint. ISU forced 23 turnovers and converted those into 35 points. Illinois State also threw down six dunks in the game, four of which came from Akoon-Purcell.
The Redbirds missed their first three shots of the contest before Tony Wills made a layup while being fouled, and Wills converted the and-one to tie the game at 3-3. ISU's offense picked up once Lee checked into the game at the 17-minute mark. In transition, Lee threw an alley-oop pass to freshman Roland Griffin who converted the slam dunk. The next possession, Lee nailed a pull-up jumper to give ISU an 11-5 lead.
Southern Indiana went on an 11-3 run midway through the first half and took the lead, 16-14, on George Edwards' layup. The Redbirds were 2-for-8 from the field during the Eagles' run.
Justin McCloud then sparked ISU's offense by draining a 3-pointer that gave the Redbirds a 20-18 advantage. The Eagles regained the lead with a pair of treys from Jeril Taylor. Southern Indiana held onto the lead until the 4:22 mark of the first half. Akoon-Purcell went on his own 5-0 run, capped off by a driving dunk to put the Redbirds back in front, 35-34.
Illinois State ended the half strong with a 14-4 run over the last five minutes to give the Redbirds a 44-38 halftime lead. Akoon-Purcell led all scorers with 17 points at the break. Lee scored 10 points and swiped four steals off the bench in the first 20 minutes. The Redbirds outscored Southern Indiana 28-16 in the paint. ISU converted 20 points off of 12 Southern Indiana first-half turnovers. The first half saw seven ties and seven lead changes.
ISU started the second half on a 7-3 run, highlighted by an Akoon-Purcell alley-oop dunk. Through the first 10 minutes of the second half, Illinois State increased its lead to 63-53. Griffin and Wills scored five and four points, respectively, during the stretch.
Once Akoon-Purcell returned to the game at the 11:11 mark, he created instant offense for the Redbirds. Fresh off the bench, he broke away for an uncontested dunk, which gave ISU a 66-55 lead. On the next two possessions, Akoon-Purcell hit a jumper then stole the ball and took it all the way for another layup.
From that point on, the Redbirds pulled away from Southern Indiana. At the 6:47 mark, ISU held its largest lead of the night, 76-57, after Daouda "David" Ndiaye scored his first points on a hook shot near the hoop. ISU capped off the 88-81 win with back-to-back dunks from MiKyle McIntosh and Nick Banyard.
The Redbirds will now open the regular season Friday, Nov. 13, at San Diego State. That game is set to tip at 9 p.m. CT, live on ESPN3.
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