PEORIA, Ill. – Illinois State never trailed, and out-scored Bradley 53-39 in the second half as the Redbirds picked up a season sweep of the Braves by an 88-71 final score on Thursday evening.
Emon Washington led four Redbirds in double-figure scoring with 20 points, making 7-of-12 shots from the field and all five free throws, while Josiah Strong and Dedric Boyd each scored 18. Antonio Reeves scored 13 points, including 11 over the first 20 minutes of action.
Washington pulled down a game-high eight rebounds with four assists and two steals, as Howard Fleming Jr. dished out five assists – also a game-high, while pulling down five rebounds.
The Redbirds out-rebounded Bradley 31-to-28 in the game and had a 16-to-7 assist-to-turnover ratio for the game. Illinois State went 31-of-54 from the field in the game, a percentage of 57.4, while converting on 16-of-17 free throws (94.1%), tied for the 15th best single-game mark in school history.
Illinois State scored the first eight points of the game and led 13-2 through the first four and a half minutes of the contest. Bradley chipped away at their deficit, but Brave runs were met by runs from the Redbirds, as the lead see-sawed between three and nine for most of the half. The hosts twice closed the gap to a single point, but each time ISU answered with five straight points as the Redbirds took a 35-32 lead into the locker room at halftime.
Bradley fought back and knotted the score at 49 points apiece with 13:46 to play in the game; however, Illinois State ran off an immediate 11-0 run to take the margin back to double digits. The Braves twice trimmed the margin to single digits – a nine-point deficit each time – with the last one coming with 10:06 to play in the game, before five straight points by ISU gave the visitors a double-digit lead, cruising the rest of the way in a 17-point Illinois State victory.
Bradley made 25 of 58 shots from the field in the game (43.1%), and 8-of-26 (30.8 percent) from beyond the arc.
The Redbirds will take the weekend off and prepare for its next set of games, a pair of regular season-ending home games against UNI, starting on Friday, February 26 in an 8 p.m. tip-off at Redbird Arena.
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