CHICAGO – Illinois State got 21 points from Josiah Strong and 15 from DJ Horne but could not overcome strong play by the Loyola Ramblers in an 86-55 MVC loss on Monday evening.
Strong was 8-of-15 from the field including 5-of-7 from long range, while Horne made 6-of-17 shots from the field, and 3-of-7 from beyond the arc. Horne narrowly missed a career-high with six rebounds, while he, Strong, Howard Fleming Jr., and Emon Washington each gave out three assists.
Strong got the Redbirds out to a strong start, scoring the first five points of the game for ISU, and the Redbirds led 5-4 before the Ramblers ran off an 11-2 run over the next five minutes to climb to an eight-point advantage. The first half deficit reached as high as 18, and that was the margin as the teams went into the locker room at halftime, with Loyola leading 40-22.
The second half saw ISU close the gap to 14 with 12:18 left in the contest; however, Loyola answered with an 8-0 run to put the margin at 22 and the hosts cruised the rest of the way in the 31-point Rambler win.
Illinois State made 22-of-55 shots in the game (40.0 percent), 8-of-23 (34.8 percent) from long range and all three of its free throw tries. Loyola made 57.1 percent (32-of-56) of its shots from the field, and 8-of-19 (42.1%) from beyond the arc. Loyola was led by Cameron Krutwig who scored a game-high 22 points with nine rebounds and seven assists.
The next currently-scheduled game for Illinois State is on January 9 and 10 against Evansville after the Redbirds' January 2 and 3 series against Valparaiso was postponed due to COVID-19 within the Crusader program. Any schedule updates can be found on GoRedbirds.com and on Twitter at @Redbird_MBB.
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