ESTERO, Fla. – It came down to the final seconds Tuesday night, but the Indiana State Sycamores suffered their first loss of the season as they fell 63-61 to Kansas City in the semifinals of the Gulf Coast Showcase at Hertz Arena. ISU (4-1) will face Drexel tomorrow at 5 p.m. for third place in the tournament.
 
Kansas City (3-4) took down the top two favorites in the tournament, defeating Toledo in the first round, and will advance to the title game Wednesday night at 7:30.
 
In a back-and-forth game that saw nine lead changes and four ties in the first half alone, the Sycamores found themselves down by eight with 53 seconds to go in the second half. Cooper Neese pulled them back within one as he drilled a triple with 31 seconds left and then drew a foul beyond the arc that sent him to the line for three shots. He knocked down two of them, and then with ISU down 62-58, he connected for another three off a feed from Cameron Henry to make it a one-point game with less than five seconds on the clock. Kansas City's Shemari Allen would get fouled and hit his first of two free throws with one second remaining and then he grabbed his own rebound off his miss of the second attempt to secure the win for the Roos.
 
Courvoisier McCauley led the Sycamores in scoring with 18 points for his fifth straight double-digit scoring game. With Neese's eight points in the last 30 seconds of the game, he joined McCauley in double-digits with 10 points. Bledson contributed nine points off the bench, shooting a perfect 3-of-3 beyond the arc.
 
McCauley and Henry each pulled down a team-high six rebounds apiece and Henry dished out a team-high four assists.
 
The night seemed to start off fast as both teams scored on their first possession, but things slowed down heavily after that as both teams entered scoring droughts. Kansas City was 0-of-8 from the field in an almost eight-minute span, and ISU was just 1-of-8 in that same span. Bledson ended the drought for the Sycamores with a triple at 10:52 to give ISU the 9-7 lead.
 
McCauley put up eight straight Sycamore points including back-to-back triples to put ISU up 26-22 at 3:07 in the second half, and Jayson Kent took a couple late trips to the line where he converted on all four free throws. The Roos got a basket back in the final 30 seconds of the half, and the Sycamores led 30-28 going into the break.
 
Trenton Gibson nailed his second 3-pointer of the season at 14:56 in the second half and then Henry hit a spinning floater to give the Sycamores their largest lead of the day at 39-33. The Roos later went on an 11-0 run to take a 44-39 lead, and Henry halted that run with a trey at 8:20. McCauley and Kent each hit a 3-pointer down the stretch but neither one could spark a large enough run for the Sycamores.
 
Inside the Numbers

• McCauley started 0-for-3 from three early in the first half but shot 4-of-6 with three triples in the last 7:20 of the frame. He led the Sycamores in scoring for the fourth time this season and third game in a row.
• Shooting 9-of-21 in the first half, seven of ISU's nine field goals in the frame were beyond the arc, and McCauley and Bledson each had three apiece in the half.
• The Sycamores shot a season-low 19-of-51 (37.3 percent) from the field in the game with a season-low 61 points. ISU was averaging 85.8 points per game going into tonight's game.
• ISU committed 18 turnovers in the game with 13 in the first half alone, and Kansas City took advantage of 15 points off those turnovers.
• Going into tonight's game, ISU had not trailed its opponent since the first half of the season opener against Green Bay. The Sycamores trailed Kansas City for 19:53 in the game.
• ISU was 10-of-19 from the free throw line while Kansas City was 23-of-31.

 
News & Notes

• ISU received a technical foul on the bench at 9:25 in the first half. That makes four techs in three games for ISU.

Up Next
Indiana State will face Drexel for third place in the Gulf Coast Showcase Wednesday, Nov. 23 at 5 p.m. at Hertz Arena.
 
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