National Basketball Association
Illinois St. 65, Wichita St. 62
When: 2:35 PM ET, Saturday, March 7, 2015
Where: Scottrade Center, St. Louis, Missouri
Officials:
# John Higgings, # Gerry Pollard, # Bert Smith
Attendance:
13898
By SportsDirect Inc.
Illinois State 65, No. 8 Wichita State 62: Daishon Knight scored 25 points and hit a late go-ahead 3-pointer as the Redbirds upset the Shockers in the semifinals of the Missouri Valley Conference tournament in St. Louis.
Reggie Lynch tallied 11 points, seven rebounds and five blocks for fourth-seeded Illinois State (21-11), which also bounced Wichita State from the 2012 MVC tournament semifinals for its only previous victory in the last 14 meetings in this series. DeVaughn Akoon-Purcell added 10 points as the Redbirds will take a six-game winning streak into Sunday’s championship game against No. 2 seed Northern Iowa.
Fred VanVleet finished with 19 points, seven rebounds and five assists while Ron Baker contributed 13 points, seven assists, six boards and four steals as the top-seeded Shockers (28-4) lost for only the second time in their last 41 conference games. Tekele Cotton chipped in 12 points.
Both teams started red-hot as Illinois State hit five of its first seven shots and Wichita State nine of its first 11 before cooling off, combining to go 9-of-39 over the remainder of the half. The Shockers held the Redbirds scoreless for more than seven minutes to increase their lead to 12, but Illinois State stormed back behind Lynch and Knight as the duo combined for the final 16 points of a 27-10 burst to give the Redbirds their largest advantage of the game at 41-36 with 12½ minutes to go.
Wichita State battled back and pulled ahead on a layup by Darius Carter with 4:16 remaining, setting off a sequence of four lead changes until Knight drained a triple to make it 59-58 with 2:20 left. MiKyle McIntosh and Knight combined for six free throws thereafter to counter four late points from VanVleet, whose long 3-point attempt with two seconds to go hit off the back iron.
GAME NOTEBOOK: Illinois State ended its seven-game skid against Wichita State and matched its longest winning streak since Feb. 6-24, 2010. … Knight totaled 49 points in three games against the Shockers this season, posting 24 points in a 70-62 loss on Jan. 4 before going scoreless in a 68-62 setback on Feb. 14. … Wichita State finished with nine turnovers, falling to 15-2 when committing nine or fewer miscues.
Top Game Performances
| Illinois St. |
|
Wichita St. |
|
Daishon Knight 25 |
Scoring |
Fred VanVleet 19 |
|
Paris Lee 3 |
Assists |
Ron Baker 7 |
|
Reggie Lynch 7 |
Rebounds |
Fred VanVleet 7 |
|
DeVaughn Akoon-Purcell 6 |
Free Throws Made |
Fred VanVleet 2 |
|
John Jones 1 |
Steals |
Ron Baker 4 |
|
Reggie Lynch 5 |
Blocks |
Zach Brown 1 |
Team Stats Summary
| Team |
Points |
FG% |
3PM-3PA |
FTM-FTA |
Assists |
Rebounds |
Blocks |
Steals |
Turnovers |
| Illinois St.
|
65 |
44.7 |
6-14 |
17-20 |
9 |
26 |
6 |
4 |
12 |
| Wichita St.
|
62 |
45.0 |
4-18 |
4-8 |
14 |
28 |
3 |
7 |
9 |
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