SALT LAKE CITY – Despite having five players score in double-figures – led by Ty Pence's career-high 21 points – and the team making 59 percent of its shots from the game, the Illinois State men's basketball team saw its seven-game win streak snapped, falling by an 83-78 final score to the Utah State Aggies in the second of three games at the Salt Lake Slam.
HOW IT HAPPENED
The Redbirds struck first in the game with a Chase Walker jumper in the paint, before the Aggies scored seven straight, taking a five-point lead. The Utah State squad held onto its lead until ISU used a 13-4 run, closed by a Ty Pence jumper to put the Redbirds back up by two. A Boden Skunberg three pointer gave ISU its largest first-half lead at 22-19; however, The Aggies fought back to extend the lead to 10, with the Birds trimming the deficit to seven heading into the locker room at halftime.
The Aggies extended the lead to 15 in the second half before the Redbirds started chipping away at the deficit, closing to within as few as three points with just under two minutes to play; however, ISU could not overcome the full amount of the deficit, falling by five inside the Delta Center.
KEY STATISTICS / NOTES
- The Redbirds opened with the starting lineup of 10 Ty'Reek Coleman, 11 Johnny Kinziger, 14 Boden Skunberg, 22 Ty Pence, and 35 Chase Walker
- This is ISU's sixth game with this lineup, and this group is now 4-2 on the season
- ISU wore its throwback red uniforms for the third time this season
- The Redbirds are 0-3 when wearing this set of uniforms, which made their debut this season
- Illinois State won the opening tip
- The Redbirds are 5-2 when winning the tip this season
- ISU's first points of the game came from Chase Walker on a back-in jump shot with 18:47 on the first-half clock
- Illinois State's first sub was Brandon Lieb with 16:28 to play in the first half
- Utah State led 40-33 at halftime
- ISU is 1-2 when trailing at the half this season
- With the game today in the Mountain time zone, ISU will have played a game in all four of the contiguous United States time zones (Eastern vs Ohio, Central home vs Cornell, Western vs USC)
- This is the third time since 1989-90 that a Redbird team has played in all four time zones, as the 2017-18 and 1989-90 squads all played in the four time zones as well
- Illinois State improved to 5-for-5 in their coaches challenge attempts on the season with an out of bounds call with 7:15 to play in the second half
- Ty Pence scored a career-high 21 points, his fifth double figure scoring game this season, and 17th of his college career
- The game was his second career 20-point scoring game, as he made 8-of-9 shots from the field, and all five of his free throw tries
- Boden Skunberg scored 12 points, his fifth consecutive game scoring 10+ points, his seventh game this season scoring in double-figures, and the 64th of his collegiate career
- Chase Walker reached double-figure scoring with 12 points, his sixth game this season scoring in double-figures, and the 33rd of his college career
- Johnny Kinziger scored all 13 of his points in the second half, as he reached double-digits in the scoring column for the fourth consecutive game, the 10th time this season and 52nd of his career
- Landon Moore scored a season-high 14 points, his first game this season in double-figure scoring, and the 20th time in his collegiate career
- ISU's field goal percentage of .588 is the second-highest total this season for the Redbirds, and the highest against NCAA Division I competition
- The Redbirds forced 16 turnovers, the highest forced total since ISU forced 19 against Evansville on March 2 last season
NEXT UP
With the non-conference season over, the Redbirds jump right into Missouri Valley Conference play on Thursday, December 18 when the squad travels south to the Banterra Center in an 8 p.m. tip-off against the Southern Illinois Salukis.
