Redbirds rout Salukis 83-47

[February 04, 2013]  NORMAL -- The Illinois State men’s basketball team (13-10, 4-7 MVC) jumped out to an early lead against Southern Illinois (8-14, 1-10 MVC) on "Retro Night" and never looked back, running away with an 83-47 victory Saturday evening on Doug Collins Court at Redbird Arena. The 36-point margin of victory was the second-largest this season for the Redbirds and the fourth-worst loss in Southern Illinois history.

Tyler Brown led all players with 16 points on 5-for-9 shooting and 3 for 5 from 3-point range. Jackie Carmichael recorded his 11th double-double of the season and the 31st of his career, scoring 15 points and grabbing 11 rebounds. All 12 players dressed saw action, with 11 scoring, including walk-on freshman Matt Stacho’s first points of his ISU career.

The Redbirds jumped out to a 7-0 lead with unanswered points by Johnny Hill, Carmichael and Brown. After Southern Illinois pulled within five at 10-5, ISU answered with a 10-0 run, capped off by a two-handed dunk by Carmichael, from Kaza Keane, to put the Redbirds ahead 20-5. However, Southern Illinois outscored ISU 10-2 to pull within 22-15 at the 8:05 mark.

A 3-pointer by Bryant Allen stopped the streak and pushed ISU back up by double digits. The trey sparked an 11-0 run over the next three minutes to increase Illinois State’s advantage to 33-15. Southern Illinois ended the first half on an 8-4 run to pull within 39-27 at the intermission.

ISU netted the first four points of the second half to take a 43-27 advantage. Southern Illinois trimmed Illinois State’s lead back down to 12 with 13 minutes remaining, but the Redbirds went on a 12-0 streak to pull ahead 64-40 with a jumper by Nick Zeisloft at the 5:01 mark.

After five straight SIU points, the Redbirds went on a 19-2 run to close the game, securing their fourth win in the last five games.

Illinois State now begins a two-game road trip, with a game at Drake on Wednesday at 7:05 p.m., followed by a matchup at Creighton on Saturday at 9 p.m. on ESPN2.

[Text from news release received from Illinois State University]