TERRE HAUTE, Ind. - Indiana State secured a key home court victory in MVC play as senior Harry Marshall recorded his 1,000th career point and the Sycamores earned a 72-65 victory over visiting Illinois State in front of 4,233 fans at Hulman Center.

ISU won its season-best tying third consecutive contest to improve to 14-9 overall and even up in league play with a 6-6 mark. Illinois State dropped to 15-9 and 6-6 in the league. The Sycamores' 6-6 mark in conference play is the latest that ISU has been at .500 in Valley play since they owned an 8-8 mark with two games left in 2007-08 - head coach Kevin McKenna's first season at the helm.

Up 67-65, the Sycamores' Carl Richard got to free throw line with 32 seconds left and he drained both to stretch the Sycamore lead out to 69-65. Isiah Martin then made the play of the game by taking a charge off a Redbird drive to secure a key defensive stop. After Marshall was fouled on the inbounds attempt he hit a pair of free throws to give the Sycamores a 71-65 lead.

Reed then grabbed a big defensive rebound with 9.2 seconds on the clock, was fouled and hit the second of two free throws for a 72-65 lead and the victory.

Indiana State senior Harry Marshall became the 32nd member of the 1,000-point club with a free throw at the 4:43 mark of the first half. He is believed to be the first initial walk-on in the storied history of the Sycamore basketball program to reach the career milestone. Marshall came to ISU as a walk-on as a freshman and has been a scholarship player for each of the last three seasons.

Marshall wrapped the game with 18 points as he led a charge of four Sycamores to score in double figures. It marked a career-high 12th consecutive game that he has scored more than 10 points and put him over the double figure-scoring barrier for a team-high 19th time this season. Marshall was 10-of-11 at the free throw line in the game and posted six assists in 38 minutes of action.

Joining Marshall in double figures was Rashad Reed with 14, Carl Richard with 11 and Jordan Printy with 10. Richard and Reed led the Sycamores with seven rebounds each.

Dinma Odiakosa led the 'Birds with 21 points. ISU, mainly paced by the defense of Marshall, limited Osiris Eldridge to an 0-of-7 night from the floor and just six points.

ISU's starting five scored 53 of the Sycamores' 72 points to outscore the Redbird starters who posted 45. ISU is now a perfect 9-0 on the season when its starters produce more points than their opposing counterparts score.

The Sycamores also out-rebounded the physical Redbirds 31-25 and improved to 10-1 on the season when securing more caroms than the opposition. ISU used 13 offensive rebounds to score 16-second chance points and converted 11 Redbird turnovers into 16 points.

Indiana State shot 44.2 percent from the field (23-of-52) and hit 9-of-21 shots from 3-point range (42.9 percent). The Sycamores entered the contest as the league's leading free throw shooting team (76.6 percent) and hit 17-of-19 from the charity stripe (89.5 percent). ISU has been ranked as the nation's fifth-best free throw shooting team in the nation and is tied with St. Mary's for top honors among all non-BCS schools.

ISU ran its two-point halftime lead out to 38-34 on a second half opening bucket by Marshall with 19:41 left in the game. The Redbirds came all the way back to knot the contest at 38, but ISU scored the game's next six points on back-to-back 3-pointers by Rashad Reed as ISU lead 44-38 with 16 minutes left.

Illinois State battled back to take a brief 49-48 advantage with 12:57 left , before Marshall converted a conventional 3-point play for a 51-49 cushion. Aaron Carter tacked on a triple of his own with 11:55 left to make it 54-49 and then Lloyd Phillips countered right back to with a trey to make it 54-52.

Up 56-52 already, Jordan Printy ran the Sycamore lead out to a game high spread of 59-52 as the clock ticked near ten minutes with a 3-point basket to run him into double figures scoring.

After the 'Birds scored a bucket, Marshall went into double figures scoring for a career-high 12th consecutive game and for a team-best 18th time this season with a pair of free throws to give ISU a 61-54 lead.

Following up a conventional 3-point play by Jackie Carmichael, Marshall continued to add to his point total with two more free throws for a 63-57 lead as the game neared seven minutes remaining. Marshall tacked on two more near the death of the shot clock following another Sycamore stop to give ISU a 65-57 advantage with five minutes left.

Marshall, who entered the game ranked in the nation's top 100 for free throw percentage this season, connected on a pair with 3:02 left in the game as he stretched the ISU lead to 67-59. Illinois State's Phillips answered on the Redbird end with 1-of-2 at the charity stripe as they cut the Sycamore lead down to 67-60. Marshall missed a trey for the Indiana State and Phillips found himself back at the free throw line where he hit 1-of-2 again to make it 67-61 with two minutes to go.

The Redbirds trimmed the leader further down to 67-63 as Kellen Thornton scored on a breakaway lay-up with two minutes to go. After another Redbird stop, Osiris Eldridge put in a pair of charity tosses as Illinois State scored six consecutive points to make it 67-65 with 52 seconds on the clock.

Indiana State fell behind 8-4 in the game's first four minutes, but cut it 8-7 on a 3-pointer by Richard with 14:27 to go. After Illinois State's Justin Clark hit a triple to with 11:02 left in the opening half to stretch the Redbird lead out to a best of 18-12 before the break, the Sycamores countered with an 11-3 run over the next four minutes as ISU regained an edge for a 23-21 lead.

Reed cut into the lead first with a 3-pointer before the Redbirds scored a bucket. Back-to-back jumpers by Printy and Marshall cut the Redbird advantage to 20-19 as the clock ticked towards nine minutes to go and the Sycamores took their first lead since early in the contest on a pair of free throws by Reed with seven minutes left before the break for a 23-21 lead.

The Redbirds answered with three consecutive points but ISU answered with a free throw and Josh Crawford drained a triple with 4:24 on the clock for a 27-26 cushion.

Dinma Odiakosa hit a pair of charity tosses with 39 seconds left in the half to give Illinois State a 34-33 lead, but a 3-pointer by Koang Doluony with two seconds on the clock and the buzzer from the shot clock sounding to give the Sycamores a 36-34 lead at the half.

ISU got seven points each from Richard, Reed and Printy in the opening half.

Indiana State returns to action on Saturday, February 6 when the Sycamores travel to Wichita State. Tipoff is set for 8:05 p.m. (ET) and can be heard live in the Wabash Valley on The Crock 92.7 FM as well as online at GoSycamores.com.

Illinois State at Indiana State
Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2010
Postgame Press Conference

Head Coach Kevin McKenna
Opening Statement
"I think our defense and rebounding was improved tonight against a really good team. It starts with Harry (Marshall) - 18 points, six assists, no turnovers. He did a really good job against one of the premiere players in our league. I was really proud of Harry's effort on Osiris (Eldridge), but it was also a team effort too. There were some things we were doing defensively that helped Harry and some things that our bigs were doing to help on penetration. Our guys were competitive. It got a little dicey there at the end, but they hung on and did a really good job. We got a good win against a good opponent."

On the consistency of the offense
"I think from the beginning, even though we were missing some of those shots, we were getting good shots all game. The thing that got us into a little trouble was a few careless passes that led to layups. Otherwise I think we would have had a little bit more of a cushion at halftime. We executed very well. We're setting better screens. We're moving better, and we're getting to the free throw line a little bit more."

On the rebounding effort
"Rashad (Reed) is in there feeling pretty good about his seven rebounds. Carl (Richard) had seven. I think we're 9-1 when we outrebound our opponents. I don't know how many times in the last three days I've said that to our team, and I think it's sinking in a little bit. This is one of the best rebounding teams in the league, and we outrebounded them by six. I thought we did a good job."

On Carl Richard
"I think he came out aggressively. We had a gameplan to turn him loose a little bit with penetration on some of their guys, and he did a nice job. Carl's game is developing. I mentioned it the other day about how he's developing more skills with the ball, from the perimeter, to the inside. All through high school, he's been an inside guy. He's a developing perimeter player who can take it inside because of his athleticism. He hit one three and had a couple others go in and out for him. He just has to keep taking extra shots like he's been doing."

On defending against Dinma Odiakosa
"I think when you play against a team that has a guy like that and can shoot from the perimeter, you pick your poison. I thought we did a good job of mixing up our defenses. We weren't trapping early; we were trapping late. We got a couple of turnovers because of it. We didn't give up too many wide open perimeter shots on our rotations. We gave up a couple contested ones, but you have to give up something at some point. Sometimes a contested three is better than giving up a one on one in the post with a guy like Odiakosa."

Senior Harry Marshall
On playing with consistency
"I think with that team, you have to play consistently. You have to be aware of their big and their guards. With any letdown, they can score a high margin of points. With any letdown, they can go on a run. That was a good game, start to finish, for us. We didn't have those four- to five-minute lapses on offense or defense that kill us. All in all, I think we had a good game."

On the play of Isiah Martin
"Coach always says we need to have a hustle play or dive on the floor or have somebody take a charge. Those are game-changing plays. I think we were up by two or up by four, and with that charge, it gave us the momentum to go ahead and close out the game. Isiah's been working on that and trying to do little things to help us get going and stay motivated and have energy on the court, and he did a good job taking that charge."

On improving to 6-6 in Missouri Valley Conference play
"Breaking .500 in the conference - 6-6 - and I think we have five or six more games left in conference, that places us in a great position to break even. It's a great momentum going into the swing trip where we have two road games. We want to go in and get two."

On reaching 1,000 career points
"That's a great feeling to join the 1,000 point club. Not many people get to do it. It's just a great accomplishment. It feels good that I got it in a win and not in a loss. I'm glad to be in the club."

On locking up on Osiris Eldridge
"We played team defense. Whenever I get beat off a screen or off a dribble, I can count on these guys to help me out. It's definitely not a one-on-one game. It's five-on-five out there. Whenever I'm a little tired, I can have Rashad or Dwayne or AC switch off onto him and depend on the bigs behind me."

Senior Rashad Reed
On the team's rebounding effort against SIU
"Our coaches have been preaching us guards coming back in and getting the loose ball rebound. I just tried to make a conscious effort to get down there, especially when you guard the guy that I had. He doesn't really go down there to try to get the rebound, so I could go down there and help the bigs much more in this game. I was just kind of happy that I had seven rebounds."

On reaching .500 in conference games
"It's a grind right now for five of the teams all bunched up. Today was a big game for us to get back to .500. We know this swing trip we have coming up will be tough with Creighton and Wichita. We just want to try to go get both of those games. All in all, today was a big game. We definitely wanted to break that .500 mark in conference."

Sophomore Carl Richard
On his seven rebounds tonight
"The last few games, I kind of fell off on my rebounding. Today, right before the game, Coach was like 'We shoot a lot of threes, and it's going to be long rebounds, so they just wanted me to hit the glass hard. I just tried to do that."

Illinois State Head Coach Tim Jankovich
On rebounding
"It felt like we had to try to win that area and then we were down five or six at the half. Particularly, when they're shooting so well, and we're not, you have to find a way through turnovers or rebounds to try to make up for that. We did not. I would say that was a big key to it."

On tonight's effort by Illinois State
"We came up cold for a while there. I thought we had some good shots. We obviously did not shoot the ball very well tonight, and particularly when you're on the road, that puts you behind the eight ball. You have to have so many other things go right - rebounding, your defense has to be stronger than ours was. They're a very good offensive team, difficult to guard because they have so many shooters and some touch matchups. I have a lot of respect for them, and I thought they played very well. But I was hoping we would play better tonight."

On center Dinma Odiakosa
"His confidence in his free throws makes him more aggressive. He's really found his stride from the line, and he's confident in all areas. I'm really happy for him. I'm happy for us because he's a force for us, and he's a lot of fun to watch right now. We're putting a lot on his back right now."

On ISU's Harry Marshall
"He does a great job of throwing his body into you. He has a knack for that, and he gets those calls, so he's very good at it. He hit a couple of jump shots, but it was really just the fouling. He puts his head down and forces contact, and that's difficult to guard."