YPSILANTI, Mich. – Despite career-high scoring nights from Antonio Reeves and Sy Chatman, the Illinois State Redbirds fell in double overtime by a 103-98 score in the EMU Convocation Center on Friday night.
Reeves scored 32 points, setting a new career-high for a second consecutive game, while Chatman scored a career-high 29 to go with 13 rebounds and four blocked shots – both of which are new career-highs for the redshirt junior. Josiah Strong scored 11 for ISU, while Kendall Lewis scored 10 with four rebounds.
The Redbirds return home on Tuesday, November 16 when the team hosts the Murray State Racers in a 7 p.m. tip-off at Redbird Arena.
ISU and EMU battled back-and-forth during the early stages of the game before the Redbirds ran off a 9-2 run to take a lead it would not give up until the second half. The Redbird advantage reached as many as 16, as Illinois State took a 44-32 lead into the locker room at halftime.
Eastern Michigan came out strong to start the second half, and started chipping away at the deficit, eventually taking its first lead since early in the first half with 10:28 to play in the game. EMU's second half lead grew to as many as seven points with 3:37 to play in the game before the Redbirds started a comeback of their own, scoring the next nine points to take a two-point lead on a Reeves long three-pointer. A pair of free throws in the final minute tied the game, as Strong's attempt at the buzzer rolled in and out, sending the game to the extra period.
The largest lead by either team in the first overtime period was two, as the lead changed hands six times in the period, and was tied three times, the last of which came on a Malcolm Miller free throw line jump shot – his first career basket – to tie the game at 90 and send the contest to a second overtime period.
Chatman got the second overtime started by winning the toss and then making a driving lay-in 11 seconds later, before EMU scored the next seven points to push ahead to a five-point advantage. ISU would trim the lead to as few as two but could not overcome the full deficit in the eventual loss.
ISU made 23-of-28 (82.1%) of its shots from the charity stripe and was 33-of-78 from the field and 9-of-28 from long range. Eastern Michigan was 43.8 percent from the field (32-of-73), 7-of-23 (30.4%) from long range and 32-of-43 from the charity stripe. The Redbirds out-rebounded the Eagles 47-to-41 and had seven blocked shots in the loss.
The Eagles were led by Monty Scott who scored 28 points, as Bryce McBride scored 23 and Noah Farrakhan 17.
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