ST. LOUIS -- Indiana State fought through a tough shooting performance and still had a look at the basket from 3-point range and trailing by three points as Illinois State downed the Sycamores 77-70 in front of 7,077 fans inside Scottrade Center in the quarterfinals of the State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Tournament.
The Sycamores fall to 13-18 on the season while the Redbirds improved to 17-14.
Jordan Barnes return to his hometown of St. Louis and led the team with 25 points and seven rebounds.
Qiydar Davis in his final game as a Sycamore scored 15 points and pulled down six rebounds.
Brandon Murphy concluded his four-year career with 10 points and seven rebounds.
ISU hit 21-of-62 shots from the field (33.9 percent) while Illinois State hit 27-of-56 from the field (48.2 percent). The two teams tied in the battle of the glass at 40. The Sycamores used 10 offensive rebounds to post an 11-2 edge in second chance points.
Brenton Scott finishes his career with 1,760 points which is fourth-best in the history of the program. He connected on 270 3-pointers during his career which finishes as the second-best mark in the history of the program. Barnes finished the season with 117 3-pointers on the season -- which is a school record and the fourth most during a single-season in the history of the Valley (the most ever by a sophomore).
Trailing by six points and with just over three minutes remaining,
Brenton Scott was fouled and hit a pair of free throws to make it 67-63. Then the Sycamores made it over three minutes with perfect defense and Barnes drove the lane for a lay-up to draw within 67-65 and 2:48 remaining. Illinois State called a timeout after the Barnes bucket. They answered with two Milil Yarbrough free throws to regain a four-point advantage. Key went to the free throw line with 1:34 to go off the long defensive rebound and hit both to trim the Illinois State lead to 69-67. Illinois State scored four in a row before Barnes connected on his fifth 3-pointer of the game to draw within 73-70 and 45 seconds to go. A late 3-pointer bounced off the front of the rim and the Redbirds closed it out at the free throw line for the 77-70 victory.
The Sycamores followed up four
Qiydar Davis free throws with their first field goal of the game on a
Clayton Hughes dunk at the 13:59 mark to cut the early Redbird lead down to 11-6. Illinois State raced out to a nine-point lead, but
Bronson Kessinger trimmed it to 17-10 at the 10:20 mark which was followed by a
Qiydar Davis steal and dunk to make it 17-12.
Trailing by six points,
Tyreke Key hit the Sycamores' first 3-pointer of the game with 7:36 on the clock and then Barnes came away with a steal and mid court and took it to the rim to get ISU within 20-19 with 7:02 remaining and forced the Redbirds to call a timeout. Illinois State ran their advantage back out to six points before Barnes hit his first 3-pointer of the game and then
Brandon Murphy scored on a second chance opportunity to once again put Indiana State down a point at 25-24 with just under five minutes left in the opening stanza.
Barnes would push the Sycamores ahead with a four-point play at the 2:06 mark as he trey and free throw put Indiana State ahead 28-27. Phil Fayne would answer in the paint as the Redbirds snuck ahead by one before Barnes came back with his third trifecta of the first half at the 1:28 mark to give the Sycamores a 31-29 lead. The Redbirds countered with final five points of the half and took a 34-31 lead into the locker room. Barnes owned 14 points in the first 20 minutes, hitting 5-of-7 from the field and a trio of 3-pointers.
Murphy started off the second half the right way with a dunk off the feed from Barnes and Illinois State led 34-33. Madison Williams came right back with a triple and the Redbird lead grew to 37-33. With 17 minutes remaining,
Qiydar Davis made it four points in a row for the Sycamores and cut the Illinois State lead down to 41-40.
Emondre Rickman answered a 6-0 Redbird run with a jumper in the paint as the clock ticked under the 14 minute mark to get Indiana State within 47-42. After the Redbirds took a seven point lead, Kessinger scored inside off the feed from Barnes to get the Trees within 49-44. Phil Fayne missed a pair of free throws on the offensive end and then
Qiydar Davis hit a jumper plus the foul and the Redbird lead had shrunk to 49-47 with 10:16 on the clock.
Illinois State came back with an 8-0 run before Murphy scored on a second chance bucket to get within 57-49. After a pair of Key charity tosses, Fayne scored four in a row and the Redbirds led it 63-51 with 7:06 remaining. Barnes tried his best to stem the tide with his fourth trifecta of the game with 6:56 to go which made it 63-54. Illinois State scored inside but Davis connected on a trey from the corner and the Sycamores trimmed the deficit down to 65-57.
Jordan Barnes connected on a pair of charity tosses out of a timeout and the Illinois State was whittled down further to 67-61.
Milik Yarbrough led the Redbirds with 24 points.