NORMAL, Ill. – Tamara Lee and Ashli O'Neal each scored 15 points and Indiana State posted a season-low 12 turnovers but mounting fouls depleted an already short bench in a 78-70 loss at Illinois State Sunday afternoon.
 
Regan Wentland added 13 points for the Sycamores while Ty Battle nearly reached double figures for the third straight game with nine points and leading the team with seven rebounds.
 
Illinois State (13-9, 6-5 Missouri Valley) saw nothing but change out of the visiting Sycamores (10-12, 4-7), spending most of the game, especially in the fourth quarter, off balance as Indiana State continually changed defensive schemes.
 
"The whole game I tried to change things and keep it unbalanced for them because that was the only way I knew we were going to be able to stay in the game," Indiana State Head Coach Vicki Hall said. "We had to keep changing things up to give them different looks. We were there - we were there all the way until about three minutes left, we were within five points. I think that is pretty good when you are playing basically six and a half people."
 
The Redbirds saw an 11-point lead in the third quarter start to dwindle before it completely dissipated in the final frame, frustrated by a lack of consistent looks. That frustration resulted in a 9-0 Indiana State run that was capped by a Krystal Rice 3-pointer that gave the Trees a four-point lead with just under seven minutes to play.
 
But then foul trouble swung the pendulum back the other direction. Indiana State would see three players foul out – O'Neal, Ty Battle and Daijah Smith – while the resulting free throws would continue to fall. The Redbirds hit 81.5 percent of its free throw shots including all eight attempts in the fourth quarter.
 
More than just free throws went in for the hosts. Illinois State converted 26 of 46 field goal attempts for a 56.5 percent clip in the game. TeTe Maggett led all scorers with 26 points while Lexi Wallen (16 points) and Simone Goods (13 points) also reached double figures.
 
"We had a couple of keys to the game and we were not able to hold true with one of our major keys and that was to make sure we kept TeTe Maggett in check," explained Hall. "She got loose on us and that made it really tough for us. When we let people have at or above their average - which she was above by quite a bit - it is harder for us to stay in the games. When you shoot 56 percent, it makes it tough. We are shooting a better percentage than we have been but we are giving up, once again, too much. We have talked about that and we are going to keep working on it."
 
The shooting percentage Hall was referring to – Indiana State's 44.4 percent mark in Sunday's game – marked the fourth time in the last five outings the Sycamores have shot over 40 percent in a game.  That is notable for a team that entered that stretch shooting 36 percent from the field, a number that has slowly risen to over 38 percent following Sunday's contest.
 
Despite the increased offensive production and diminishing turnovers, the rapidly rising tally of fouls prevented one of the Valley's most aggressive defensive teams from fully employing their best feature. By the end of the game, six Indiana State players had three or more fouls. The Sycamores were whistled for an average of nearly seven fouls per quarter while the Redbirds were only whistled 15 times throughout the entire game.
 
"We are going to keep finagling and trying to find out what we can do and what we can get," Hall added Believe me, we are going to keep fighting until the very, very end. Our kids are playing hard, they are getting better."
 
Indiana State returns to the Wabash Valley on Friday, Feb. 15 as the Sycamores host Loyola Chicago with a 7 p.m. tip-off. Fans are encouraged to arrive early as the university will retire the jersey number of 22 worn by Sycamore great Melanie Boeglin.
 
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.