High Octane Offense

Belmont Visits Illinois State

(St. Louis, MO) – High octane offense will be on display when Belmont visits Illinois State. The Missouri Valley Conference’s most prolific three-point shooting teams will square off for the second time this year.

During that first meeting the teams accumulated 196 points in an overtime thriller won by Belmont 99-97. The Bruins average just over ten triples per game and during the conference opener for each team, Belmont only made eleven, long distance attempts. Illinois State buried eighteen. The game was tied at 88, at the end of regulation.

Eleven different players reached double-digits in scoring and the two teams combined to distribute 47 assists! Amazingly only 19 of the 196 points came from the charity stripe. Since that game, the Redbirds and Bruins have each won eight games with Belmont losing four and Illinois State dropping five. Both came out on the short end against Bradley, Drake and Northern Iowa.

Recent ‘Rivalry’ Games

Illinois State comes off a narrow ‘War on 74’ defeat to Bradley. Illinois State Associate Head Coach Jason Slay says the environment in Peoria was incredible. Nearly 10,000 fans packed Carver Arena for the 139^th meeting of the two storied rivals.

Belmont may have played its most complete game of the season defeating rival Murray State. Head coach Casey Alexander says it has been a long time since his team has played that well.

Defending High Octane Offense

While Illinois State and Belmont are in the middle of the Valley pack in overall field goal percentage, they are the league’s top two teams (during conference play) in three-point percentage and long-distance completions. They are the second and third best free throw shooters.

Slay says the Bruins are ‘electric on offense’. He says his team needs to cut off fast break opportunities by getting back defensively and getting their defensive alignments ready for the Bruin attack.

Belmont’s record (15-6, 7-3) would be satisfactory to most, but not to coach Alexander. Noting his team has dropped some winnable games, he likes the potential for growth for the 2024-25 Bruins. He admits that his team’s defensive struggles are concerning.

Belmont allows the second most points of the twelve Valley squads and have yielded eighty or more points to eight different opponents.

Belmont is the much taller of the two teams and after talking about Brigham Rogers’ recent uptick in confidence, Alexander says having a taller team, gives them some more defensive options.

Illinois State’s Johnny Kinziger (14.6 ppg) and Chase Walker (14.4) are the league’s seventh and eighth leading scorers. Alexander says both are all-conference type players and calls Kinziger a ‘winner’. Hindering their offensive output has Alexander’s attention.

Each of those players scored 16 points in the December contest. Kinziger’s numbers tick up to 15.8 ppg during league play.

Belmont newcomers Carter Whitt and Jonathan Pierre each average just under fifteen points per league contest and Pierre is the conference’s tenth leading rebounder.

Getting to Know Coach Slay

Associate Head Coach Jason Slay took our questions about the Redbirds this week. He is a young (not yet 40), but well-traveled coach. He began his coaching career at legendary Hargrave Military Academy and says he learned valuable lessons, and made great, life-long relationships at the Virginia-based prep school.

Slay is in his second season at Illinois State and first as the Associate Head Coach. He loves working on coach Ryan Pedon’s staff and says he has learned a great deal about basketball and about life from fellow assistant Rob Judson.

Illinois State has an ‘all-hands-on-deck’ approach to preparing for games. Coach Slay says he and assistant coach Judson run the defense and Andrew Dakich handles the offense, with head coach Ryan Pedon connecting all the pieces.

Illinois State (12-9, 4-6) has lost five of its six conference games by six or fewer points. Their losses to UNI (one point), Drake (four) and Bradley (four) show they can play with the league’s upper echelon teams.

During Wednesday’s ‘MVC Game of the Week’ we’ll see high octane offense as each of these teams begin the season’s second half. The game tips at 8:00 pm on your local Gray Media TV station.

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