ST. LOUIS, Mo. – The 2023-24 Illinois State men's basketball season came to an end on Thursday evening, as the 'Birds fell to the Evansville Aces by a 59-53 final score on Thursday.
Myles Foster scored a game-high 18 points while pulling down nine rebounds, while Johnny Kinziger scored a dozen points while also pulling down nine rebounds for his career-high. Malachi Poindexter was the third Redbird to score in double-figures with 10 points while adding three assists.
The Aces ran off to a 5-0 run early in the game, and the Redbirds were never able to take a lead in the contest. The margin was trimmed to as few as two in the first half, and reached only as many as nine with 2:30 left in the period before ISU closed the half on an 8-3 run to cut the deficit to four heading into the locker room at halftime.
In the second half the Redbirds cut the deficit to as few as two on three occasions, the last time with 51 seconds to play, before the Aces iced the game with six free throws down the stretch in the six-point Evansville win.
TEAM NOTES
- Illinois State used a starting lineup of 1 Malachi Poindexter, 3 Dalton Banks, 4 Myles Foster, 11 Johnny Kinziger, and 22 Kendall Lewis
- This is the ninth consecutive game that this lineup has been used to open a game
- Evansville won the opening tip
- The first Illinois State points of the game came from Myles Foster with a put-back lay-up with 17:26 to play in the first half
- It was the 12th time this season he has scored the first points in a game this season for the Redbirds
- The first sub for Illinois State was Luke Kasubke with 14:43 to play in the first half
- Evansville led 25-21 at halftime
INDIVIDUAL NOTES
- Luke Kasubke
- Malachi Poindexter
- Made his 25th start of the season and 50th start of his collegiate career
- Reached double-figure scoring for the 14th time this season and 27th time in his career
- Dalton Banks
- Has started all 32 games for the Redbirds this season, and 47 games during his career
- Myles Foster
- Has started 31 of the team's 32 games this season, and has 65 career starts in 118 games played
- Scored in double figures for the 22nd time this season and 59th time in his career
- Pulled down his 600th career rebound in the first half
- Darius Burford
- Played in his first game since February 3 (foot injury)
- Johnny Kinziger
- Made his ninth collegiate start
- Pulled down a career-high nine rebounds
- Scored in double-figures for the 13th time this season
- Kendall Lewis
- Started his 26th game of the season, and 110th of his collegiate career
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