Illinois State Leads Road Team Revolution

(St. Louis, MO) – it was a rare Saturday for Missouri Valley Conference teams as all three road teams were winners. Illinois State started the parade of triumphant travelers as the Redbirds won their early afternoon game at Indiana State.

Streaking Redbirds

Illinois State (12-4, 4-0) raced out to a 47-24 half time lead as MiKyle McIntosh scored 21 first half points. Dan Muller’s squad finished off the Sycamores (6-10, 0-4) 77-58. McIntosh finished with a career high 31 points, and Phil Fayne grabbed a career best 11 rebounds.

How rare was this road win? It was the first for ILS in Terre Haute since 2007. Muller’s crew is on a five game winning streak. They’ve also won eight of their last nine.

Muller told goredbirds.com that hitting shots early was a key ingredient to the win.

“We came out like gangbusters,” said Muller. “We just played really well. Of course our defense was unbelievably good in the first half.”

Rare Bear Home Loss

Southern Illinois handed Missouri State their second home loss in their last 11 home contests. Both teams were missing key guards, but SIU (10-7, 3-1) came away with a 75-67 win, in front of the largest JQH Arena crowd (5,892) of the year.

Senior guard Mike Rodriguez scored 22 points while the Salukis outscored the Bears (11-6, 2-2) 16 to 6 in points off turnovers and 17 to 10 in second chance points. SIU was missing leading scorer Armon Fletcher who has an injured ankle. MSU announced before the game that second leading scorer Ronnie Rousseau has taken a leave of absence for personal reasons.

Read “Missouri State’s Ronnie Rousseau Leaves for Personal Reasons”

Loyola Rambles Into Peoria

Milton Doyle picked up a career high 35 points Saturday as Loyola grabbed their second road win of the year. Doyle led the Ramblers (12-5, 2-2) to their second straight conference win, a 78-62 victory at Bradley.

Doyle made five shots from long distance and had three teammates join him in double figures (Ben Richardson–17; Aundre Jackson–13 and Donte Ingram–11).

Bradley (7-10, 2-2) got behind early and never recovered. Freshman Darrell Brown led the Braves with 19 points.

Sunday competition finds Evansville (10-6, 1-2) visitng Drake (3-12, 1-2) and Northern Iowa (5-9, 0-3) hosting Wichita State (13-3, 3-0).

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