The Illinois State women's basketball program is on an 11-day foreign trip (Aug. 6-16) exploring Italy. Follow the Redbirds on social media (#BirdsAbroad) and with a daily travel log on goredbrids.com. Today's blog entry post is brought to you by Advocate BroMenn Medical Center.
Sunday, August 11
9 a.m. – We started off our morning with a team stretch and agility session on the square outside of our hotel to get the blood flowing for our game tonight. After, we enjoyed a nice breakfast on the rooftop restaurant at our hotel.
10:15 a.m. – Next, we walked around in Florence and did some shopping. As our tour guide Mario would say, we are "helping the local economy". We all got a few souvenirs in order to remember our time in Florence.
11:45 a.m. – After a long morning of shopping, a lot of us went to Caffe Italiano and had a variety of pizzas.
2:30 p.m. – After lunch, we were able to lay down in our rooms a little bit to rest up for the game before going to pregame meal. The meal consisted of pasta, chicken, and potatoes and was finished off with a plate of juicy watermelon.
5 p.m. – We loaded the bus to leave for our game. We played in Montecatini, which was an hour drive from our hotel in Florence.
7 p.m. – GAME TIME! We had a phenomenal team win against the slammer select team. It was a ton of fun playing against a different opponent and it was great to secure a win in our second game. We finished the night with a postgame pizza!
Scrimmage Recap – The Redbirds pulled away during the second half to defeat the Slammers Select, 76-59, in Palaterme, (just outside of Florence, Italy) in the second game of their Italian tour. Senior Lexi Wallen dominated the paint and led the Redbirds with 17 points and 6 rebounds. Senior Tete Maggett added a near double-double with 12 points and 9 rebounds, while sophomore Kayel Newland chipped in 11 points.
After a back and forth first half which included seven lead changes, the Birds trailed by a point at the half 29-30. Illinois State then connected on 5 three-point field goals to take a 51-44 lead after three quarters. The Slammers came out to start the fourth quarter in a zone defense, but Illinois State continued to pull away for the 17-point victory.
"Maximum effort on every possession is always one of our goals. I thought we were able to do that for the most part, especially in the second half. That allowed us to get out in transition and wear them down to build a lead," Illinois State head coach Kristen Gillespie said.
The Slammers are a professional team based out of German made up of players who mainly compete collegiately in the United States and Canada. Illinois State will play its third and final game of their Italian tour on Wednesday in Como against TK Hanover, another professional team from Germany.
GoRedbirds.com and the Illinois State Redbirds App: Your sources for Illinois State tickets, Weisbecker Scholarship Fund gifts, multimedia, Redbird merchandise, photos and more.
