NORMAL, Ill. - Indiana State fell to Illinois State in the final road MVC contest of the season for the Sycamores by the score of 75-58 in front of 7,024 fans at Redbird Arena.

Indiana State fell to 16-13, 8-9 MVC while the Redbirds improved to 21-8, 11-6 MVC.

Carl Richard paced the Sycamores with 14 points while Marshall had 10, Carter added 13 and Lathan had 12. Marshall and Lathan returned to action for the first time in five games after suffering injuries three weeks ago in the season's previous meeting against the Redbirds.

The Redbirds used a 21-10 advantage on the offensive boards and outscored the Sycamores by an 18-2 margin in second chance points.

Illinois State hit three of their first five shots from the field, which ISU was only able to muster a Rashad Reed bucket with 18:26 left in the first half in falling behind 6-2 after four minutes of play. The Sycamores turned the ball over four times in their first eight possessions while the Redbirds coughed the rock up three times, but it was the Redbirds scoring four points off the ISU miscues.

Aaron Carter was fouled in the act of shooting a 3-pointer with 13:58 left in the opening stanza and he hit all three of his charity tosses to trim the Redbird lead down to 14-9, but a putback by Illinois State's Jackie Carmichael on the Redbirds' next possession stretched the advantage back out to 16-9.

Down 18-9, Harry Marshall made his presence known in the contest by hitting a driving lay-up at the 10:34 mark to make it 18-11 and help spark a 7-0 run for ISU. Marshall went on to hit a long 3-pointer one minute later to cut the Redbird advantage down to four points and a driving lay-up by another Sycamore returning from injury - Dwayne Lathan - made it 18-16 with 7:57 left in the first half.

Illinois State countered with a 9-0 run of their own to break a nearly six minute scoreless drought at the 6:25 mark on a second chance 3-pointer by Lloyd Phillips. Falling behind 27-16, the Sycamores scored five consecutive points, one on a 3-pointer by Koang Doluony with 4:17 to go which broke an ISU scoring drought of three minutes to make it 27-19 and then Carl Richard connected on a dunk shot with 3:15 remaining before halftime as ISU used a 5-0 run to make it 27-21.

The only scoring the rest of the half for the Sycamores came with 2:23 left before halftime with a trio of free throws by Marshall which cut the Illinois State lead down to 29-23 at the time. The 'Birds scored the first half's final four points to go into the locker room up 33-24.

Marshall led ISU with eight points at the half. Both Carter and Marshall were fouled in the first half on 3-point attempts and each converted all three of their free throw attempts as ISU was 6-of-6 from the charity stripe.

Illinois State ran its nine-point halftime lead out to 37-24 after a pair of quick buckets inside before Richard drilled his first 3-pointer of the contest to cut the advantage down to 37-27 with 17:42 on the clock.

ISU received back-to-back 3-pointers from Richard and Carter with 14 minutes left to cut the Illinois State cushion down to 43-35. Dwayne Lathan hit a pair of charity tosses with 13:27 remaining before Richard scored again with 13 to go and Lathan hit a driving lay-up at the 12:24 mark to cut the Redbird lead down to 48-41. Illinois State answered with a pair of buckets in succession to stretch their lead back out to 52-41.

Doluony added a charity toss and following a Redbird bucket, Lathan connected on an open 3-pointer with 9:17 left in the contest to get the Illinois State advantage into single digits - 54-45. Richard's turnaround jumper in the paint made it 54-47 with 8:12 left in the contest.

The Sycamores cut the Illinois State advantage down to just 56-53 with 6:03 left on 3-pointer by Jordan Printy and three charity tosses by Carter. Illinois State responded with a conventional 3-point play by Odiakoska and two more free throws by Tony Lewis to stretch their lead out to 61-53.

After a brief perch for the 'Birds at 63-53, Lathan connected on his second triple of second half to make it 63-56 with 4:40 left in the contest. After the 'Birds scored six straight, Marshall ended the scoreless drought with a breakaway jumper with two and half minutes left which cut the Illinois State lead down to 69-58.

Indiana State returns to action on Saturday, February 27 when the Sycamores host Missouri State in the regular season finale at home. Tip-off at Hulman Center is set for 2:05 p.m. (ET). All tickets to the contest are free compliments of SERVPRO. The game will also be the final regular season home appearance for three ISU seniors - Harry Marshall, Josh Crawford and Rashad Reed.