ISU loses to St. Louis in postseason play

The Indiana State Sycamores returned to Missouri on Tuesday evening to take on the St. Louis Billikens in the first round of the College Basketball Invitational.

Unfortunately for the Sycamores, St. Louis could hardly miss a shot as they went on to defeat the Sycamores 63-54.

The game marks the first time the Sycamores have played in a post-season game since the magical 2000-01 season when Indiana State defeated No. 4 Oklahoma in the first round of the NCAA tournament 68-70 in overtime.

This is also the first time the Sycamores have played in the College Basketball Invitational.

ISU began the game ice cold as St. Louis jumped out to an early 9-1 lead.

ISU senior guard Rashad Reed ended the Sycamore drought with a 3-pointer to make the game 4-11.

However, the Billikens continued their hot shooting and extend their lead to 17-4 after buckets from sophomore Willie Reed, freshman Christian Salecich and sophomore Brian Conklin.

It looked like SLU was about to break the game wide open after a dunk and layup from Willie Reed, but another three from Rashad Reed brought Indiana State within 10 points at 12-22 with 10:31 left in the first half.

However, the bleeding only got worse for the Sycamores.

SLU added buckets from Reed, freshman Jon Smith and freshman Cody Ellis to extend their lead to 12-28.

Sycamore senior Josh Crawford and SLU’s Reed added four consecutive points each to make the game 16-32 with 4:23 left in the half.

Junior Isiah Martin added his second bucket of the game and a bucket from Reed brought the Sycamores to 32-20, but a 3-pointer from SLU’s Justin Jordan put St. Louis back up 35-20.

The Sycamores ended the half with layups from sophomores Dwayne Lathan and Jordan Printy to put them down 24-37 at halftime.

At the half, the Sycamores were shooting 9-26 from the field. Quite the contrary, the Bellikens were shooting  14-27 from the field, four of which were 3-pointers.

Eight Sycamore first-half turnovers led to 11 SLU points, a statistic that troubled the Sycamores throughout the season.

The Sycamores started the second half with a flurry of offense, beginning with a layup from Lathan. After converting the free throw, the Sycamores were down 27-37.

A steal from sophomore Carl Richard on the next possession led to two free throws, and the Sycamores were suddenly within eight points.

A layup from SLU sophomore Kwamain Mitchell and the additional free throw put the Bellikens right back up 13 points with 16:15 left to play.

Indiana State was able to cool off the hot shooting of St. Louis in the second half to give the Sycamores a glimpse of hope.

With less than five minutes left, two 3-pointers from freshman Koang Doluony brought the Sycamores to 48-57, but St. Louis was able to hold off the late Sycamore charge and won the game 63-54.

Mitchell led the Bellikens with 19 points and six rebounds. Reed followed with 17 points and eight rebounds.

Lathan and Reed led the way for the Sycamores with eight points each.

The Sycamores struggled from the free-throw line all game, going 14-21 from the stripe. 

“The thing that kept us in the games all year were our free throws,” said head coach Kevin McKenna. “We missed a ton of free throws tonight.”

The Sycamores turned the ball over 17 times Tuesday night. St. Louis took full advantage of those loose balls and put up 23 points off of them.

“They beat us to a lot of loose balls,” McKenna said. “They didn’t let us handle the ball and did a good job on our wings.”

The Sycamores end the season 17-15 overall, their first winning record since that 2000-01 season.