Birds Cruise Past St Francis (IL) on Education Day, 110-60

NORMAL, Ill. – Illinois State women's basketball (5-3, 0-0 MVC) put a season-high six players into double-figures to secure its third straight win, blowing by St Francis (IL) 110-60 in front of a program-record 8,027 fans Thursday.  

HIGHLIGHTS 

• Caroline Waite led all scorers with a career-high 25 points, shooting 7-for-9 from deep in the win. She finished one off the program record of 8 threes (Taylor Stewart, 1/20/17 at Missouri State). She caught fire in the second quarter, going 4-for-5 from deep to lead Illinois State with 16 points in the first half.  

• Two freshmen finished with double figures in the same game for the first time this season. Trista Fayta reached double figures for the first time in her career, totaling 12 points, 2 rebounds and 6 assists. She was 2-for-3 from deep, including a three at the 8:26 mark of the third to put Illinois State up 99-38. Meanwhile Doneelah Washington finished in double figures for the third time over the last four games. She tallied 11 points and 4 rebounds in the win, including a 7-for-7 performance at the free throw line.  

• Nevaeh Thomas and Shannon Dowell have reached double-figures in every game this season. They did so again on Thursday as Thomas finished with 13 points and a team-high 8 rebounds while Dowell added 10 points, 4 rebounds and 2 assists.  

• Addison Martin tallied eight first-quarter points, finishing with 12 points and 6 rebounds overall in the win. She reached double figures for the sixth time in eight games this season.  

• Illinois State raced out to a 13-2 first quarter lead and never looked back. The Redbirds led by as many as 66 points. All but one Redbird who checked into the game scored, including 10 players who finished with 5-plus points.  

GAME NOTES 

• Illinois State grabbed a season-high 49 rebounds, out-rebounding its opponent for the fourth consecutive game. 

• The Redbirds posted a CEFCU Arena record of 110 points, which was one-off the program-record of 111 points set in 1976. It marks the third time over the last two seasons that Illinois State has tallied 100-plus points and just the second time in program history Illinois State has finished with 110-plus points.  

• Illinois State hit a season-highs of 11 threes and 23 free throws, shooting 11-for-24 (45.8%) from deep and a season-best 23-for-25 (92.0%) from the line. The Redbirds shot 38-64 (59.4) from the field, shooting north of 50 percent for the third time over the last four games.  

• The Redbirds set a season-high with 26 assists, dishing 20-plus assists for just the second time this season (Nov. 17 vs Le Moyne). 

• Waite hit six-plus threes for the second time in her career as a Redbird, to go with a performance of six threes last season at fifth-ranked NC State. She is the second Redbird to hit seven threes in a game over the last three seasons, joining Paige Robinson (11/20/22 vs Wisconsin) and Mary Crompton (11/20/22 at Dayton).  

• The Redbirds played in front of a program home-record 8,027 fans, which was the first home crowd in program history with 8,000-plus fans.

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