NATCHITOCHES, La. – Fighting off Demons on and off the basketball court, the Illinois State Redbirds picked up a 69-67 non-conference road win – ISU's second road win in the past 72 hours – over the Northwestern State Demons on Saturday afternoon.
The Redbirds not only had to overcome their opponent on the floor, but travel woes that saw them spend an entire day in the St. Louis airport, and arriving into Natchitoches less than three hours before the start of the contest.
Kendall Lewis continued his torrid start to the 2022-23 season with a career-high-tying 24 points while grabbing 13 rebounds, picking up three steals and blocking two shots – each of which were the high-mark in the game for either squad.
Darius Burford scored a season-high 16 points on 6-of-9 shooting from the field and a perfect 4-of-4 effort at the charity stripe. Liam McChesney scored nine points for ISU while Malachi Poindexter scored eight with two steals. Luke Kasubke dished out a game- and career-high six assists in the win.
The Redbirds – who led for a total of 20 minutes and 16 seconds in the game – helped head coach Ryan Pedon become the first ISU head coach to win his first two true road games of his Illinois State career wince Gene Smithson won at Long Island and at Butler over his first three games of his career.
Northwestern State jumped out first in the game, scoring the contest's first four points before the Redbirds rebounded with seven straight points to lead 7-4. The back-and-forth start continued as the hosts pushed ahead to a five-point, 18-13 lead, NWSU's largest lead of the contest. ISU kept chewing away at the lead, and was able to tie the score at 32 heading into the locker room at halftime.
ISU scored the first two points of the half, and after leading by three the hosts made a push to take their final lead of the game at 41-39 before the Redbirds would score five straight and never trail again in the contest. The Illinois State lead grew to as many as seven following a Kasubke three-pointer, and the Redbirds held on despite a buzzer-beating half-court shot that cut the final deficit to two.
Illinois State made a season-high 54.1 percent of its shots in the game (20-of-37), and 35.7 percent (5-of-14) from long range. Northwestern State was 25-of-59 from the field (42.4 percent), 8-of-19 from three-point range (42.1%).
The two schools meet again on Thursday, November 17, this time at CEFCU Arena – Home of the Redbirds, with a tip time of 7 p.m.
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