TERRE HAUTE, Ind. – For the Queens, no comeback was necessary.
 
Indiana State forced 22 turnovers, held Illinois State to a season-low 27.8 percent shooting from the floor and never relented after taking a three-point lead into half in a 59-44 Missouri Valley Conference win in front of a crowd of 1,582 at the Hulman Center Friday evening.
 
The loss, Illinois State's sixth consecutive defeat in Terre Haute, saw the Sycamores (8-6, 2-1) match a season-low 13 turnovers and shoot 39.2 percent from the field – the highest clip the team has recorded in over a month.
 
"Our young ladies came to play tonight, I'm very happy about that," Indiana State Head Coach Vicki Hall said of the team's win. "They played hard. We keep preaching to them about hard they're going to have to play in order to win games and they keep doing what we're asking and when they do, good things happen. We had a lot of energy and effort."
 
More impressively, the Sycamores did so despite foul trouble. Three starters, including leading scorer Ashli O'Neal, all received four fouls while Kierra Isaiah received her fourth early in the final quarter. O'Neal would lead all scorers with 19 points while Isaiah added another 12 points.
 
"We have that a lot, so I'm kind of used to it," said Hall of the team's foul trouble. "We just keep trying to juggle and figure out who can play the longest with that amount of fouls. It's definitely not our game plan to foul that much, but we do average about 26 fouls a game. We work on that all the time, to try to clean that up, but you know we play aggressive, and that's the way we have to play in order to win."
 
But only Isaiah would foul out while Illinois State saw last year's Valley Newcomer of the Year Simone Goods foul out with over four minutes to play. The Sycamores had a 13-point lead at that point never allowed Illinois State (8-6, 1-2) to cut that lead into single digits. Goods led the Redbirds with 14 points and 10 rebounds in the game.
 
One of the biggest factors in not losing a halftime lead was the second half shooting for the Trees. Averaging just 37.0 percent shooting from the field this year, the Sycamores shot a staggering 59.1 percent from the field in the second half Friday evening, all while slowly turning up the defensive pressure.
 
"I think we were more patient," Hall said of her team's second half offensive approach. "In the first half, we got a couple situations and tried to shoot it without reversing the ball. At halftime we talked about being more patient and trying to put them in difficult situations and letting the defense move, so we can attack better, and they did."
 
The Sycamores will now host Bradley (11-3, 1-2) on Sunday at 2 p.m. in the team's annual PINK game. The Braves are coming off a 75-68 win at Evansville Friday.
 
For the latest information on the Sycamore Women's Basketball team, make sure to check out GoSycamores.com. You can also find the team on social media including Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.