NORMAL, Ill. – Fifth year Juliunn Redmond's game-high 21 points on Sunday wasn't enough as the Illinois State women's basketball team (15-11, 11-4 MVC) dropped its final home game of the season to Southern Illinois (17-7, 12-2 MVC), 65-49, at Redbird Arena.
Redmond led the Redbirds in scoring in her fifth-straight game, going for her ninth 20+ point performance of the season. Redshirt junior Mary Crompton chipped in eight points with redshirt sophomore Maya Wong adding seven.
Southern Illinois, who maintains first place in the Missouri Valley Conference with the victory, had three Salukis finish in double figures, led by a 20 point, 12 rebound double-double from graduate student Abby Brockmeyer.
HOW IT HAPPENED
The Salukis took the lead off a Makenzie Silvey triple just 19 seconds in and never relinquished it, using dominant defense to hold the Redbirds to just 15 points in the first half, a season-low for Illinois State. At halftime, ISU trailed, 31-15, shooting just 25% (5-of-20) from the floor.
The 'Birds rallied in the third quarter to outscore the Salukis, 20-19, in that span, including an 8-0 run with two Crompton three-pointers to end the period at 50-35, but the deficit remained too great as Southern Illinois ran away with the win.
IN THE BOX SCORE
- With her two treys today, Crompton now has 204 career triples and is only one three-pointer away from tying former Redbird Jenny Schmidt for third in ISU's career three-pointer list.
- Redmond moved into 26th all-time in scoring with her 21 points, bringing her to 1,078 career points as a Redbird.
- ISU was outrebounded, 32-22, and the Salukis also had a 12-7 advantage in offensive boards.
QUOTE FROM HEAD COACH KRISTEN GILLESPIE
On the opponent: "You got to give credit to Southern Illinois. What they're doing this year is really special. You can tell they have that 'it' factor, they're playing so hard and what they do, they do it very well."
On ISU's performance: "I think you could have given me a thousand scenarios on how today was going to go and I don't think I would have seen this one coming. We had a really good day of prep yesterday and I loved our mindset, yet we still came out really flat. It's just frustrating and disappointing with a great crowd like this. I also know that this is only a little bit of a road block and nothing worth while comes easy. We've got a some soul-searching to do but we'll be back."
UP NEXT
The 'Birds embark on the Iowa MVC swing, playing at Drake on Friday evening and then heading to UNI for a Sunday afternoon finale.
For all latest on Illinois State women's basketball, stay tuned at GoRedbirds.com and follow the team at @RedbirdWBB (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram).
GoRedbirds.com and the Illinois State Redbirds App: Your sources for Illinois State tickets, Weisbecker Scholarship Fund gifts, multimedia, Redbird merchandise, photos and more.
