ISU coach Barb Smith and the Redbirds open Missouri Valley Conference tournament play on Thursday night in Moline. (Photo GoRedbirds.com)
By Illinois State University Athletics Media Relations
The Illinois State women’s basketball team hung tough with Missouri State through the first quarter of action Saturday at JQH Arena, but the Lady Bears (219, 144 MVC) poured in on over the final three quarters of play to defeat the Redbirds (821, 612 MVC) in the regular season finale.
Seniors Lexie Taylor and Octavia Crump led the way for the Redbirds with 12 and 10 points, respectively, and Shakeela Fowler and Kalyn Gebhardt each chipped in with six points for the Redbirds against the Lady Bears.
The Lady Bears took a quick 6-2 lead, before the Redbirds answered with five straight points to take their first lead of the contest. Fowler connected on a layup and Taylor drilled a threepointer from the top of the key to make the score 7-6 in favor of ISU. The Bears took the lead back soon after and grew the advantage to as many as five points at 14-9, but the Redbirds answered with layups by Taylor Stewart and from Colleene Smith to trim the lead back to a point at 14-13. MSU would then move the lead back to four points at 18-14, before a jumper by Fowler with 15 seconds left in the first stanza cut trimmed the deficit to a bucket at 18-16.
Missouri State would grow the lead to 23-18 over the first four minutes of the second quarter, before a jumper by Octavia Crump and a pair of free throws by Stewart cut the Bears’ lead to 23-22. Missouri State answered with a 12-0 run to make the lead 33-22 as the Redbirds went scoreless for over five-plus minutes. A turnaround jumper by Crump at the free throw line ended the drought for ISU with less than 30 seconds on the clock and the Bears took the 37-24 lead into the locker room at the half.
The Lady Bears scored the first nine points of the third quarter to balloon the lead to 46-23, before Fowler snapped a five-minute scoring drought for the Redbirds to make the score 46-26 at the media time out with 4:34 to play. MSU maintained control for the remainder of the period and took a 53-26 lead into the fourth quarter of action.
Four-straight points by Stewart and Crump early in the fourth quarter gave the Redbirds a bit of momentum on the offensive end as the MSU lead was trimmed to 56-30. The Bears never looked back and continued their hot shooting and pulled away for the 70-41 win on senior day.
The Redbirds will be the No. 7 seed and will play No. 10 seed Evansville on Thursday, March 10, in the first round of the 2016 Missouri Valley Conference Tournament. Tip off is set for 7 p.m. at the iWireless Center in Moline, Illinois, and the game will be on WJBC-AM 1230 and WJBC.com.
