NORMAL, Ill. – The Illinois State Redbirds got several outstanding efforts against MVC preseason favorite Drake on Wednesday night; however, the team fell in overtime by an 89-88 final score.
The game was Illinois State's fifth overtime contest this season, tied for the most in the country, as the Redbirds are now 2-3 when needing extra time to finish a game.
Antonio Reeves scored a game-high 25 points for ISU, making 7-of-17 shots from the field and all nine of his free throw tries. Josiah Strong added 17 points, including hitting 5-of-7 three-point shots. Kendall Lewis picked up his first double-double of the season with 14 points and 11 rebounds, while Liam McChesney – in his first collegiate start – scored 14 points with for rebounds. Guard Mark Freeman dished out 10 assists – the most by a Redbird player against a Division I opponent since Milik Yarbrough gave out 10 helpers in his Redbird debut against Florida Gulf Coast on Nov. 11, 2017.
The Redbirds return to action on Saturday, January 29 when the team travels to Cedar Falls, Iowa, to take on the UNI Panthers in a 1 p.m. tip-off at the MacLeod Center.
ISU scored first before Drake ran off 11 consecutive points to lead by nine at 11-2. The visitor lead stretched to as many as 10 at 14-4 before the Redbirds ran off 15 straight points to turn the 10-point deficit into a five-point advantage with 11:23 to play in the first half. From there the teams battled, and for the final 36 minutes of game play, the largest lead gained by either team was five points, and the Redbirds took a one-point, 38-37 lead into the locker room at halftime.
The second half lead changed hands a dozen times and was tied 12 more times over the second 20-minute period. After ISU led by three with 10:02 to play, Drake fought back with five straight points and the margin was never more than two over the final 15 minutes of game play. ISU took a one-point lead with 23 seconds to play in regulation on a Reeves running lay-in, before Drake's Roman Penn made 1-of-2 free throws with nine seconds left to send the game into an overtime period.
Overtime had three tie scores and five lead changes, the final lead change coming with 1:24 on the clock with a pair of Bulldog free throws, as neither team would be able to reach the scoring column in the final 83 seconds, and Drake held on to the one-point, 89-88 MVC win.
Illinois State made 46.2 percent of its shots for the game (30-of-65), and 8-of-19 (42.1%) of its long-range tries. The Redbirds also converted on 20-of-26 free throws (76.9%), while dishing out 16 assists against 13 turnovers. Drake was 33-of-69 from the field (47.8%) and shot 30.4% from beyond the arc (7-of-23) and 69.6 percent (16-of-23) on its free throws.
The Bulldogs put six players in double-figure scoring led by D.J. Wilkins and Tucker DeVries who each scored 18 points. ShanQuan Hemphill, in his first game since January 8, scored 15 points while Garrett Sturtz scored 14, as Roman Penn and Tremell Murphy each scored 10.
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