Ace Hunt
GoSycamores.com
CHICAGO -- Indiana State used a pair of first half runs and withstood a Rambler rally around halftime en route to a 79-65 road victory over Loyola on Saturday afternoon at the Gentile Center.
The Sycamores improved to 12-12, 8-4 MVC while Loyola fell to 14-10, 4-8 MVC. Indiana State is now in sole possession of third place in the Valley standings.
Devonte Brown led the way with 22 points, all of which came in the second half. Brenton Scott tied his career-high with 21 points as well. It marked the second time this season a pair of Sycamores each scored 20 or more points in the same game as Khristian Smith and Brown each did it against Brown in non-conference play. Jake Kitchell added 12 as did Justin Gant off the bench.
For the game, the Sycamores hit 57.5 percent of theirs shots from the field, including a 52.6 percent shot from 3-point range. Indiana State was on fire in the second half as they hit 13-of-18 attempts from the field (68.4 percent) and were 5-of-7 from distance (71.4 percent).
Kitchell paced the Sycamores with six rebound but it was the Ramblers who held a 29-23 edge on the glass for the game.
The Ramblers scored the first three points of the second half to cut a Sycamore six-point halftime lead down to just three with just over a minute off the clock. Indiana State got a pair of Brenton Scott and Devonte Brown charity tosses on their next two trips before Brown scored the team's first field goal in nearly 10 minutes of clock time to complete a 6-0 run and stake the Sycamores to a 40-31 lead.
Loyola scored to stop the string, but Kitchell was left wide open at the top of the key and drilled a 3-pointer at the 16:27 mark to push the lead back to double digits at 43-33. Loyola's Jay Knuth rattled home a shot from distance but the Sycamores responded with a conventional 3-point play from Brown with 14:44 to go to restore to 48-38 advantage. Brenton Scott's triple at the 14:18 mark pushed Indiana State's lead to 51-40.
Just as in the first meeting, the Ramblers stayed strong on the offensive end, but Devonte Brown responded with driving lay-ups on consecutive trips down the floor for a 55-43 lead with 12:54 on the clock and the Ramblers called timeout. The two teams traded empty possessions under a Scott steal, lay-up and free throw with 10:31 to go made it seven points in a row for the Sycamores to take a 58-43 lead.
Loyola made another slice into the Sycamores' advantage but Devonte Brown made it 14 points for him in the second half with a 3-pointer as the shot clock was winding down and Prusator broke the press with a trifecta of his own as the clock ticked under eight minutes to go and the Sycamores led 64-49.
The Ramblers scored six in a row but Scott continued to a second half rally killer with a deep 3-pointer to restore a 71-57 cushion with 3:28 to go as Indiana State's led was threatened to move under double digits. Loyola did score four points in a row to make it a 10-point game, but a pair of Devonte Brown charity tosses with 1:35 remaining maintained the 73-61 advantage.
T.J. Bell earned the start inside for the Sycamores and scored on the first trip down the floor with a baseline jumper for the quick advantage. The Sycamores used a Jake Kitchell lay-up at the 12:29 mark to take an 11-6 edge but the Ramblers responded with four in a row to draw within a point of the Sycamores and trim the Indiana state cushion down to just 11-10.
3-pointers from Khristian Smith and Justin Gant as well as fastbreak lay-up from Brenton Scott off a steal put the Sycamores on an 8-0 run and the Sycamores lead grew to 19-10 at the 10:29 mark to force a Loyola timeout. After the Ramblers scored out of the timeout to make it a seven point contest, the Sycamore defense and offense really got going.
While the Sycamore defense held Loyola without a point for nearly three minutes, the offense scored 10 points in a row. Kitchell began the run with a charity toss and then consecutive triples from Scott (twice) and Gant stretched the lead out to 29-12 with 7:37 left in the first half.
The Sycamores held as many as a 17-point lead twice in the final eight minutes of the first half, but a Kitchell charity toss with 2:25 would be the only point for Indiana State in the last four minutes before halftime as a 3-pointer from Loyola's Ben Richardson cut the Sycamore cushion down to 34-28 with two minutes on the clock and that would be the halftime score. Justin Gant led the Sycamores with 10 points at halftime.
Indiana State travels to nationally-ranked Wichita State on Wednesday, February 11 for another MVC battle. Tip-off is set for 8:00 p.m. (ET) and will be televised by ESPN3.
