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ST. LOUIS – Illinois State connected nine times from three-point range in the first half against Southern Illinois in the State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Tournament semifinals and finished with 13 overall, as the Redbirds (27-5, 17-1 MVC) secured their spot in the championship game Sunday with a 63-50 win over the Salukis (17-16, 9-9 MVC) at the Scottrade Center.
The 13 makes from 3-point range tied a program record for most makes in a conference tournament game. MVC Player of the Year Paris Lee connected four times from long distance to finish with 12 points for the Redbirds while dishing out five assists. MiKyle McIntosh made three treys to finish with a game-high 15 points and Tony Wills also made three to finish with nine points overall.
ISU jumped out to a quick 8-0 lead after Lee made his first 3-pointer of the contest. Southern Illinois then answered with five quick points, before McIntosh hit his first trey of the game to extend the lead to 11-5 less than three minutes into the game. The lead would later grow to 10 points after Phil Fayne hit a jumper to make the score 20-10 at the 12-minute mark. The Redbirds then put together a 14-4 run to make the score 34-16 after Deontae Hawkins put back a basket after a strong rebound with under four minutes remaining in the first half.
Four-straight points by DJ Clayton made the advantage 20 points for Illinois State at 38-18 and another 3-pointer from Lee with under two minutes to play put ISU up 41-18. An emphatic dunk by Fayne with 11 seconds left and a block as time expired by Fayne sent the Redbirds into the break at halftime leading 43-20.
Coming out of intermission, the Redbirds made four more 3-pointers to give the Redbirds their largest lead of the game at 55-24 with 14:49 left in the game. The lead remained at 28 points for the Redbirds at 59-31 with just under 10 minutes remaining after a layup by Fayne. With the majority of the starters on the bench for the remainder of the contest, the Salukis managed to chip away at the Redbird advantage over the final eight minutes of the game before ISU closed out the 63-50 victory.
The top-seeded Redbirds will face No. 2 seed Wichita State Sunday in the MVC Tournament championship game, which is set to tip off at 1 p.m. live on CBS.
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