ST. LOUIS, Mo. – Despite 15 points from Dusan Mahorcic, and 10 each from DJ Horne and Antonio Reeves, the Illinois State Redbirds fell in the opening round of the MVC Tournament in a back-and-forth battle by a 65-60 final score to the UNI Panthers on Thursday evening.
Mahorcic made 7-of-12 shots from the field, while he, Horne, and Howard Fleming Jr. each pulled down a team-high seven rebounds. Horne went 2-of-8 from the field and a perfect 5-of-5 from the charity stripe, while also dishing out a team-high four assists and grabbing a game-high-tying three steals. Reeves was 4-of-9 from the field and added two rebounds and a pair of assists. Josiah Strong (eight points) and Abdou Ndiaye (seven points) each were on the verge of reaching double-figures in the scoring column.
The teams battled back and forth over the entire game with a total of 11 lead changes and 14 tie scores, and the largest lead either team could grab in the contest was seven points.
The game started with the Redbirds scoring and UNI answering four different times, as the teams were tied at eight, five minutes into the contest. UNI took its first lead of the game with 12:15 to play in the first half, a one-point advantage, before ISU rolled off eight straight points – the largest scoring run in the game for either team – to lead by seven following a Mahorcic lay-in off of a Horne assist. UNI fought back with seven in a row to tie the game – its largest scoring run of the game – and later took its second and third leads of the game, including a one-point, 30-29 lead at halftime.
With a first half of five lead changes and six tie scores, the second half was even more back-and-forth with six lead changes and eight tie scores, as neither team could gather any footing on the other for most of the rest of the game. Three free throws by Horne put the Redbirds back ahead with 6:37, but it was their final lead of the game as UNI scored the next four points to take a three-point advantage. The margin grew to as many as seven, before closing at its final total of five in the 65-60 season-ending loss.
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