BIMINI, Bahamas – Indiana State took its best defensive effort of the season and added to it the best shooting performance of the year en route to a 72-60 victory over Loyola Marymount on the second day of the 2019 Junkanoo Jam at Resorts World Bimini.
 
ISU tasted victory for the first time this season to improve to 1-4 while Loyola Marymount fell to 2-3. The Sycamores improved to 2-1 against the Lions all-time and is the first win over the program since 1948.
 
Defensively, the Sycamores limited Loyola Marymount to a 44.7 shooting percentage, including just a trio of 3-pointers. Offensively, the Sycamores hit 14-of-25 from long range – led by a career-high tying seven 3-pointers from senior Jordan Barnes. Barnes led the way for the Sycamores with a career-high tying 29 points. Freshman Jake LaRavia made it two games in a row in double digits scoring with 10 points despite once against battling foul trouble. Cooper Neese hit four 3-pointers in the game to finish with a new career-high of 21 points.
 
ISU connected on 52.4 percent (22-of-42) from the field in the game. ISU was led in rebounding by Neese who finished the game with nine caroms.
 
Indiana State made it an 8-0 run around halftime when Jake LaRavia connected on a 3-pointer from the top of the key on the Sycamores' first offensive possession to give ISU a 36-32 advantage. The Sycamores would not score again until the clock ticked under the 15 minute mark when Jordan Barnes would hit his fifth 3-pointer of the game and after a LMU bucket, Christian Williams connected from downtown to establish a 42-38 cushion.
 
Barnes would hit his sixth 3-pointer of the game with 13:57 on the clock and he added a charity toss on the four-point play to extend the Sycamore lead out to 46-40. When Jordan Barnes tied his career high with his 7^th 3-pointer of the game at the 10:52 mark – that extended the Sycamore lead out to 52-43.
 
Tre Williams had the highlight reel dunk of the season with 8:40 remaining in the contest plus the foul to push the Indiana State cushion out to 55-44. LMU got the Sycamore lead down to seven points before Neese connected on a fade away with just over four minutes remaining to give ISU the 61-52 lead. LMU cut the Sycamore lead down to five points again but Barnes hit a high floater off the glass to push the Sycamores ahead 63-56. Neese hit the dagger with 1:45 remaining from the corner to push the ISU lead out to 67-56.
 
Barnes opened the scoring with a 3-pointer – the first of four in the opening 20 minutes for him – at the 19:13 mark to stake the Sycamores to an early lead. Cooper Neese answered with a trifecta of his own on the next offensive possession to push ISU ahead 6-2. Neese and Tre Williams scored on consecutive possessions to push the ISU advantage out to 10-4 just over five minutes in. Barnes would make it 13-8 in favor of the Sycamores with his 3-pointer at the 11:42 mark but then the Lions scored the next 10 during a stretch in which ISU missed both of their shots and turned the ball over twice.
 
The nearly four minute offensive drought ended with a driving lay-up from Jake LaRavia and then following a Jordan Barnes steal he feed the ball inside to LaRavia for a dunk with 7:38 to go which drew the Sycamores within 18-17. The Sycamores would trail by four points heading into the final minute before halftime, but Barnes hit his fourth trifecta of the half and Tyreke Key added a pair of charity tosses with seven seconds remaining to give the Sycamores a 33-32 lead at the break.
 
Loyola Marymount was led in scoring by 13 points from Ivan Alipiev.
 
Following a day off, the Sycamores will conclude their play in the 2019 Junkanoo Jam on Sunday, November 24 against Air Force. Tip-off from Bimini is set for 4:00 p.m. (ET) and will be televised on FloHoops.com on a pay-per-view basis.