NORMAL, Ill. – The Illinois State women's basketball program (17-5, 11-1 MVC) continue their four game homestand as they welcome Southern Illinois (8-13, 5-7 MVC) to Normal for a Friday night contest. Tipoff is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. from CEFCU Arena – Home of the Redbirds.
Friday will be Illinois State's annual Pride Night, with ISU handing out a complimentary koozie to fans as supplies last. Scott Sudikoff and Sean Johnson are on the mic as the game will be shown on ESPN3. Meanwhile, ISU's radio call will be provided by Greg Halbleib, found on the Varsity Network or WJBC 102.1 FM & 1230 AM.
GAME INFORMATION
v. Southern Illinois (Game Notes)
When: Friday, Feb. 10
Tip-off: 6:30 p.m. CT
Location: Normal, Ill.
Facility: CEFCU Arena
Watch: ESPN3
Live Stats: StatBroadcast
Listen: WJBC 1230 AM /102.1 FM
LAST TIME OUT
Graduate guard Paige Robinson led all scorers with 24 points in Sunday's 79-73 victory over Murray State (11-10, 4-8 MVC), helping the Redbirds (17-5, 11-1MVC) to their third-straight win as part of #Play4Kay, and 10th straight overall, at CEFCU Arena (full recap).
Illinois State celebrated wins both on and off the court, as the Redbirds set a new program fundraising record, raising $46,733 for the Kay Yow Cancer Fund and the fight against ALL cancers affecting women.
Robinson would shoot 3-of-4 from three-point range as part of her 24-point performance, adding three assists, two blocks, and five rebounds in 37 minutes of action. Junior Kate Bullman captured a career-high 16 points Sunday to go along with seven rebounds.
Senior DeAnna Wilson gathered yet another double-double, her seventh of the season, finishing with 16 points and 11 rebounds. Mary Crompton would be the final Redbird in double figures, going for 10 points including a pair of three-pointers.
The Racers were led by Macey Turley, who finished with 22 points and four rebounds. Turley was joined in double figures by Briley Pena, who scored 12 points off 4-of-8 from three-point range in the first half.
SCOUTING THE SALUKIS
Southern Illinois currently sits eighth in the MVC standings entering Friday night's contest. They have dropped four of their last five, including a road loss at Belmont on Jan. 22. When playing away from Carbondale, the Salukis are 4-5 this season, including 3-3 in MVC road games.
Two Salukis are averaging double figures for the program, led by Ashley Jones' 16.3 ppg. Meanwhile, Laniah Randle is the team's leading rebounder with an average of 6.1 rebounds per game in 2022-23.
In her first season at the helm of the program is Kelly Bond-White, who succeeds Cindy Stein who retired after a 2021-22 season in which the Salukis won their first MVC championship since 2007 and advanced to the WNIT. Before SIU, Bond-White spent 19 seasons with the Texas A&M women's basketball team, where she served as Associate Head Coach since the 2007-08 season.
During her time in College Station, the Aggies won the 2011 NCAA National Championship, made three Elite Eight appearances, won five conference championships, and have appeared in the NCAA Tournament each of the last 16 seasons. Bond-White also helped the Aggies reach the Sweet 16 eight times since 2008.
In her coaching career, Bond-White has been a part of 516 victories and has coached 40 first or second team all-conference players in her career. She has coached players to 18 Associated Press All-American honors in her career.
SERIES HISTORY WITH SOUTHERN ILLINOIS
Friday will be the 111th overall meeting between the programs as ISU leads the series 64-46. When playing at home, the Redbirds have gone 24-23 against SIU.
In the first meeting this season last month, Kate Bullman's career night on the glass led the program to a 59-56 win in Carbondale. Paige Robinson led all scorers with 15 points, adding six rebounds and five assists against the Salukis. She would be joined in double figures by DeAnna Wilson (12) and Maya Wong (11).
However, it would be the efforts of Bullman setting a new career-high with 14 rebounds (9 defensive rebounds) that helped the Redbirds secure the tight win.
Ashley Jones led the Salukis with 12 points as four Salukis would finish in double figures. The other Salukis in double figures would be Quierra Love (11 points) as well as Shemera Williams and Promise Taylor, who each had 10 points.
TIGHT AT THE TOP
The top four teams in the Valley standings are entering this weekend only separated by two games.
Illinois State holds a game lead over UNI entering this week's action, while Belmont and Missouri State sit two games behind the Redbirds.
STREAKS-A-PLENTY
Illinois State, Belmont, and Missouri State enter this week riding winning streaks of five or better. The first place Redbirds have won 10 straight and is one of 12 teams nationally riding a win streak of 10+ games. Belmont has won six straight games, while Missouri State is on a five-game win streak.
The Redbirds have had six previous instances of winning at least 10 straight games in a season since 1981-82 (1983-84; 1984-85; 1988-89; 2007-08; 2008-09; 2009-10).
The Valley is one of just three leagues nationally to have three teams riding winning streaks of 5+ entering this week, joining the Atlantic 10 (Rhode Island 10, UMass 8, George Washington 5), and Mid-American Conference (Bowling Green 9, Ball State 7, Toledo 5).
HELD BELOW AVERAGE
Illinois State have kept their Valley opponents below their team season scoring average in 10 of the 12 conference games thus far. Just Indiana State (scored 68; averaging 62) and Murray State (scored 73; averaging 67) beat their average against the Redbirds.
Five of the other 10 teams (Belmont, UIC, Evansville, Southern Illinois, and Valparaiso) were held at least 10 points below their season's average against ISU.
BUILDING A WINNING CULTURE
Head coach Kristen Gillespie achieved her 200th career win with a 67-63 road win over Missouri State on Jan. 5. The Redbird head ball coach soon followed that up as she collected win no. 100 at Illinois State on Jan. 22, as part of a 32-point win over Evansville for the 'Birds.
Gillespie becomes the first ISU head coach to eclipse 100 career wins as a Redbird since current Missouri head coach Robin Pingeton, who finished her ISU career with a mark of 144-81 over seven seasons.
The 32-point wins over Evansville (Jan. 22), Valparaiso (Jan. 27), and Bradley (Feb. 2) sees the largest regular season margin of victory over an MVC foe under Gillespie for ISU.
JOURNEY WOMAN
Graduate guard Mary Crompton crossed yet another Illinois State milestone off her list on Jan. 22, as she started her 100th career game as a Redbird. With her 100 career starts, Crompton becomes the ninth Redbird WBB athlete to cross this plateau, and first since former Redbird star and now head coach at UIC, Ashleen Bracey.
With her now 104 career starts, Crompton currently sits sixth all-time in Redbird women's basketball history for the category. She is eight starts away from tying Jenny Schmidt (1995-99) for fifth all-time with 112 career starts.
DEFENSE SHOWING UP
For only the second time in the shot clock era (1982-present), Illinois State held opponents to score fewer than 50 points in three straight games.
As the Redbirds held Evansville (Jan. 22), Valparaiso (Jan. 27), and UIC (Jan. 29) to fewer than 50 points, it is the first time since the 2008-09 season that this feat has been done. In that season, the Redbirds defeated Western Illinois (80-49), Eastern Michigan (83-47), and UW-Green Bay (60-49).
IOWA CITY'S OWN
As of Feb. 9, graduate guard Mary Crompton sees herself rank among the top-20 in active career leaders for three-pointers made and three-point field goal percentage.
Through this point of the season, Crompton is 15th among active players with 277 three-pointers made while having the 18th-best three-point percentage with a mark of 40.4-percent.
CLIMBING IN THE MVC RANKS
In a massive road win for the Redbirds at Belmont on Jan. 15, Mary Crompton went for 26 points including 7-13 from three-point range, tying her career high for single-game three-pointers made set back in the season opener at Dayton on Nov. 10.
Crompton continues her move up the Valley career three-point field goal list. The graduate student sits in a tie for 3rd on the Valley's all-time list alongside SIU's Rishonda Napier with 277. With her next make, Crompton will sit in sole possession of third all-time.
GETTING OFF TO A HOT START
As Illinois State held Bradley to four points in the first quarter on Feb. 2, it marks the 35th time since 2017-18 that ISU has held an opponent to single digits in the fourth quarter. Of the previous 35 instances, 22 have come against MVC opponents.
The four points allowed at Belmont on Jan. 15 and at home versus Bradley on Feb. 2 is the fewest first quarter points allowed by ISU since last year's Hoops in the Heartlands Quarterfinals against Loyola (Chicago), where the 'Birds also allowed four points.
KEEPING A WIDE MARGIN
For the first time since the 2008-09 season, Illinois State defeated back-to-back opponents by a margin of at least 30 points, thanks to 32-point wins over Evansville and Valparaiso.
This was the first time for ISU to defeat back-to-back opponents by 30+ points since taking wins over Western Michigan (82-51) and UNC Greensboro (95-51) in the 2008-09 season.
According to ISU women's basketball record books, the back-to-back 32-point wins for the Redbirds is the first time this has occurred in conference play since the 2007-08 season. In that season, ISU defeated Bradley (79-46) and Indiana State (91-56) in consecutive games.
RISING IN THE RECORD BOOKS
Junior forward Kate Bullman is slowly but surely moving her way up the all-time ranks in ISU history for career blocks. With four blocks at UIC on Jan. 29, Bullman eclipsed 100 career rejections.
The junior presently sits solely in four all-time with 106 career blocks. The Grayslake native is the first Redbird WBB athlete to reach 100 career blocks since August Green, who played from 2016-18.
CALM, COOL, COLLECTED
So far this season, redshirt junior Maya Wong has cemented herself as one of the nation's best from the free-throw line.
As of 2/9/23, the Normal native is leading the Valley with her mark of 93.0-percent from the line.
WELCOME TO THE 1K CLUB
With her three-pointer at 3:08 in the third quarter versus Drake (12/30/22), graduate student Mary Crompton officially joined ISU's 1,000-point club. This made the Iowa City native the 30th member and only the second player (Juliunn Redmond) to reach the milestone under head coach Kristen Gillespie.
As her career continues, Crompton currently sits in 23rd all-time for ISU scoring leaders with 1,139 points and counting.
MAKING THEMSELVES KNOWN
As they have done all season, the Redbirds see four athletes making their mark across the top-100 in various statistical categories, in both DI WBB and the MVC (as of 2/9/23).
|
CATEGORY
|
VALUE
|
NCAA
|
MVC
|
|
PPG (Paige)
|
18.5
|
31st
|
2nd
|
|
3PT FG% (Mary)
|
.463
|
7th
|
1st
|
|
3PT/Game (Mary)
|
2.9
|
20th
|
1st
|
|
FT Pct (Maya)
|
.930
|
-
|
1st
|
|
Asst./TO ratio (Paige)
|
1.9
|
81st
|
6th
|
|
Blocks (Kate)
|
33.0
|
t-66th
|
5th
|
PLAYING BOTH SIDES OF THE BALL
Thanks to their efforts thus far, ISU currently ranks top-100 in nine categories (as of 2/9/23) across Division I WBB while being top five in the MVC for each category, respectively.
|
CATEGORY
|
VALUE
|
NCAA
|
MVC
|
|
3PT FG%
|
.380
|
8th
|
1st
|
|
3PT FG/Game
|
7.6
|
59th
|
4th
|
|
Free Throw Pct
|
.735
|
94th
|
2nd
|
|
Blocks Per Game
|
4.5
|
t-36th
|
3rd
|
|
Turnover Margin
|
2.82
|
76th
|
3rd
|
|
Assist/TO ratio
|
1.02
|
75th
|
4th
|
|
FG Pct Defense
|
.375
|
63rd
|
2nd
|
|
Scoring Defense
|
60.3
|
74th
|
2nd
|
|
Scoring Margin
|
8.5
|
79th
|
3rd
|
SHOOTING IS KEY
When dissecting the win-loss total for Illinois State in 2022-23, the way the Redbirds shoot has been a valid indicator for the overall result.
In their 17 wins this season, Illinois State is shooting 45.0% from the field and 39.6% from three-point range. Meanwhile, in their five losses, the shooting drops to 34.4% from the field and 29.7% from three-point range.
GONE BUT NEVER FORGOTTEN
On August 20, 2022, Illinois State women's basketball lost one of their own as former standout Simone Goods lost a courageous battle with cancer. As her time as a Redbird, both on and off the court, is forever remembered, Goods remains ranked in the top-25 in ISU women's basketball history for the following: field goals made in a season (190), rebounds in a season (238), career free-throws (227), career blocks (51) and blocks in a season (33). Goods also remains in the top-10 for the following categories: career rebounds per game (6.9), career blocks per game (0.9), and career double-doubles (12).
As the program continues to honor Simone, the Redbirds dedicated the 2022-23 season to her life and legacy at ISU. Every game this season, ISU players have worn an "SG" patch on their jerseys as the ISU coaching staff wears a similar patch on their respective game day attire.
GAINING NATIONAL RECOGNITION
Illinois State comes in as the highest ranked MVC program, for the second straight week, in the latest CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major top-25. The Redbirds (#9) are joined in the rankings by fellow MVC member UNI (#12).
MVC members Drake, Missouri State, and Belmont are receiving votes.
RISE OF THE VALLEY
The NCAA NET Report (Feb. 7) has four Valley teams that rank in the top-100, including six of the 12 sitting in the top-130. Drake leads the way at no. 53 with UNI (62), Illinois State (85), and Belmont (92) rounding out the schools in the top-100. Missouri State (103) and Murray State (126) rank in the top 130.
Only eight leagues have six or more teams in the top 130 of the NET (ACC, American, Big 12, Big East, Big Ten, MVC, Pac-12, and SEC).
49 YEARS IN THE MAKING
As part of a record-breaking weekend in Vegas for the Redbirds, the Illinois State women's basketball program would match their best program start in 49 years after taking down the Louisiana Tech Lady Techsters on Nov. 26.
With the 70-53 victory, the Redbirds would sit at 5-0 to start the 2022-23 season. This matched the best program start in 49 years, when ISU would start the 1973-74 season with the same record.
BROKEN RECORDS
As part of the program's annual Education Day on Dec. 6, 2022, the Redbirds saw a new home attendance record be set as 6,363 school children, staff, admin., and longtime Redbird fans piled into CEFCU to watch ISU take on UMSL.
Prior to Dec. 6, the previous record stood at 6,075 which was set during the 2010 WNIT when California paid Normal a visit.
WELCOME TO THE HALL OF FAME
Illinois State women's basketball legend Cathy Boswell was selected as one of five to be inducted as the 24th Women's Basketball Hall of Fame Induction Class. The members for the Class of 2023 are Cathy Boswell (Veteran Player), Donna Lopiano (Contributor), Lisa Mattingly (Official), Carolyn Peck (Coach), and Lindsey Whalen (Player).
Boswell (1979-83) was a two-time WBCA Kodak All-American and two-time Wade Trophy finalist during her time at ISU, finishing her collegiate career with 2,005 points and 1,054 rebounds. She led the Redbirds to 90 wins, an NCAA Tournament berth in 1983, a 15th-place finish in the AIAW National Tournament in 1981 and two WNIT bids (1980 and 1982). Boswell was a member of the 1984 women's Olympic gold medalist USA basketball team and competed internationally for 14 years, earning seven team most valuable player awards, one league MVP title, a player of the year award and five league championships.
The Class of 2023 will be inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame, receiving their coveted Women's Basketball Hall of Fame Trophy and Baron Championship Induction Ring on April 29th, 2023, in Knoxville, Tennessee.
NEW NAME, SAME ARENA
Illinois State University and CEFCU have come to terms on a naming rights and sponsorship agreement valued at approximately $3.1 million over 10 years. The agreement, which will support the funding for ongoing and ever-evolving costs associated with the student-athlete experience, was initiated by LEARFIELD's Redbird Sports Properties, the University's athletics multimedia rightsholder. The former Redbird Arena will be known as CEFCU Arena – Home of the Redbirds, with the University's Board of Trustees approving the arena name change at its October 14 meeting. The CEFCU Arena naming rights and sponsorship agreement will continue to support funding of the Redbird Student-Athlete experience. Particularly in these ever-evolving times, funding is vital to maintaining and expanding upon the current NCAA, Division I student-athlete experience.
REDBIRDS SIGN FOUR TO NLI's
The Illinois State women's basketball program announced the signings of four high-level talent as part of 2022 National Signing Day. The 2023 recruiting class includes Brooke Coffey (St. Charles, Mo.), Shannon Dowell (O'Fallon, Ill.), Molly Lenz (Eden Prairie, Minn.), and Savannah McGowan (Minneapolis, Minn.).
Coffey, a 6-1 guard from St. Charles Mo., has led the Incarnate Word to 68 straight wins, including multiple state titles, as the program has now captured a total of 12 MO Class 6 Championships.
Dowell, a 5-10 guard from O'Fallon, Ill., comes from O'Fallon Township High where she was named First Team Southwestern All-Conference in 2021-22 along with Third Team All State for the IBCA following last year. Dowell has had the chance to learn from five-time IBCA Co-Coach of the Year in District 19 4A (Coach Knolhoff) and amassed 1,000 career points in her junior year as a Panther.
Lenz, a 5-8 guard from Eden Prairie, Minn., was awarded 2021-22 Lake Conference All-Conference and Minnesota Girls Basketball Association All-State Honorable Mention honors. As a junior, Lenz was selected as one of Eden Prairie's three Varsity captains.
McGowan, a 6-2 forward from Minneapolis, Minn., amassed 1,000 career points during her junior season for the Armstrong High Falcons, gaining her All-State honorable mention honors.
SINGLE-GAME TICKETS
Single-game tickets are available for the 2022-23 season. Follow this link to purchase your single-game tickets or contact the Athletics Ticket Office at (309) 438-8000 for more information. Tickets start at just $10 for Illinois State women's basketball home games.
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.
