TERRE HAUTE, Ind. ? For the Indiana State Sycamores, its second-lowest shooting performance of the season was combined with one of Illinois State's best, and it proved to be too much as the Redbirds walked out of Hulman Center with a 91-56 Missouri Valley Conference victory in front of 3,944 fans.
ISU dropped its third consecutive contest to fall to 10-12, 4-8 MVC while Illinois State improved to 20-3, 10-2 MVC.
The game marked “Think Pink” night for the Sycamores as they raised money and awareness for the Susan G. Komen For The Cure Foundation, which provides funds for breast cancer research and prevention. “Think Pink” is an initiative of the Women's Basketball Coaches' Association and over 900 NCAA Division I schools participated this season.
Indiana State trailed just 38-29 at halftime despite hitting only 29.4% of their shots from the field, while the Redbirds connected on 46.7%. ISU trailed by as many as 20 points in the opening half, 32-12, with 5:35 left. The Sycamores responded with an 11-0 run over the next two minutes to get the Illinois State advantage down to 32-23 with just under three and half to play before intermission.
Illinois State rattled off the game's next four points to push the lead back to 36-23, but Sarah Paul answered with a driving lay-up to make it 36-25. After Rudolphi hit 3-of-4 charity tosses on ISU's possession, to make the score 36-28, ILSU's Lashawn Johnson hit a pair of free throws herself to make it 38-28.
Kristi Cirone fouled Leah Phillips with two seconds left, and she hit 1-of-2 charity tosses to send the teams into the locker-room with the ?Birds leading 38-29.
After Illinois State scored a lay-up on the first possession after the break to push the lead up to 11 points, Rudolphi and freshman Kelsie Cooley, receiving her first career start, scored the next four points to trim the score down to 40-33 with 18:30 left.
That would be as close as the Sycamores would get as the ?Birds blew the game wide open with a dominating 15-0 spurt over the next three and half minutes to take a 55-33 advantage with 15:07 left.
Illinois State's lead would swell to as many as 37 points with a 91-54 lead at the 1:28 mark of the second half, but Cooley hit a pair of free throws down to stretch to yield the final score of 91-56.
The 35-point loss is the worst home court defeat under eighth-year head coach Jim Wiedie, topping a 79-46 setback to Creighton during the 2001-02 campaign. The 35-point margin of defeat is also the worst at home in a conference game in the history of the program. It is also the third-worst conference loss all-time for Sycamores.
The only two worse were a 98-48 loss at Missouri State in 2000 and a 101-61 setback at Southern Illinois in 1984.
The 91 points surrendered by the Sycamores are the most it has allowed in a Valley contest since giving up 97 at Bradley in the regular season finale of the 2003-04 season. It is the most given up by a Sycamore team at home since the 2002-03 edition was dealt a 93-86 home court setback in the MVC home opener.
The Sycamores were paced by Angela Phillips, who scored 16 points and Laura Rudolphi who posted 14. Maggie Krick paced the ?Birds with 24 points, while Nicolle Lewis tossed in 21 and Shala Jackson added 18.
Cirone, the reigning MVC Player of the Year, was held to just six points, but dished out 12 assists against just one turnover.
Rudolphi added three blocked shots, giving her 143 for her career, just one block shy of moving into 11th place all-time in the history of The Valley.
One of the keys heading into the game was to control post play, but the ?Birds used their muscle inside to out-score the Sycamores in the paint by a 52-23 margin. Both teams had 11 second chance points while the ?Birds were solid in transition, scoring 12 fast-break points.
Illinois State scored the first bucket of the game and led the contest wire-to-wire. The Sycamores did not score a field goal over the final seven minutes and 56 seconds of the game.
ISU returns to action on Thursday, February 21 when they host Missouri State at Hulman Center. Tip-off is slated for 7:05 p.m. (EST).
