NORMAL, Ill. – For the second time in as many games, the Illinois State Redbirds did not trail, as ISU used the strong shooting of Josiah Strong and Antonio Reeves to pull away in the second half to an 85-64 win on Saturday afternoon.
Strong made eight of his 10 shots from the field, and 6-of-7 from long range en route to scoring 23 points, his second 20+-point scoring output in his last three contests. Reeves was 6-of-10 from the field and 2-of-3 from long range for his 17 points. Chatman also reached double-figure scoring with 10 points, while Kendall Lewis narrowly missed a double-double with nine points and nine rebounds.
In all, seven players scored at least five points in the win, and 10 made it to the scoring column in the win. Mark Freeman dished out a game-high six assists, with the Redbirds dishing out 17 assists against 11 turnovers. Over the last 100 minutes of action (second half against Chicago State, and the two games against Quincy and Ball State), the Redbirds have trailed for a total of just 15 seconds.
The Redbirds (7-5) close their current three-game home stretch on Tuesday afternoon, when ISU hosts the UTSA Roadrunners in a 2 p.m. tip-off at Redbird Arena.
Chatman opened the scoring with a mid-paint jumper before Kendall Lewis scored the next six points to push ISU to an 8-0 lead. After a Ball State basket started the scoring for the visitors, ISU scored seven more points in a row to push ahead to a 15-2 advantage. The 13-point margin would be the highest in the first half, as Ball State closed the gap to eight heading into the locker room at halftime.
Ball State closed the gap to as few as five points at 42-37, before ISU ran off a dozen consecutive points, and ultimately a 32-7 run over an eight-minute span in the middle of the second half to give the Redbirds a 30-point, 74-44 lead. The 30-point margin was recaptured with 2:45 to play, as Illinois State cruised to the 21-point win.
The Redbirds converted on 51 percent (30-of-59) of their shots from the field, and 48 percent (12-of-25) from beyond the arc. The Redbirds held the Cardinals to 39 percent shooting from the field and 33 percent from long range. ISU out-rebounded BSU 39-to-34 in the contest.
The Cardinals were led by Tyler Cochran, who scored 14 points with seven rebounds. The Redbird defense, which had 10 steals and six blocked shots, held the Cardinals well under their shooting percentage from both the field and from long range, while holding leading scorer Luke Bumbalough to just six points, seven points under his season average entering the game.
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