TERRE HAUTE, Ind. – Playing what will be its fourth game in seven days, Indiana State basketball closes its regular season on Saturday with a trip to Normal, Illinois to faceoff with Illinois State. Tip is set for 4 p.m. ET from Redbird Arena with the game airing on ESPN3 as well as on the radio on 105.5 The Legend and GoSycamores.com/Listen.
 
THE SERIES
» Saturday will mark the 129th meeting between the two programs with Illinois State leading the series 67-61. The Sycamores are 41-20 at home, 19-42 on the road and 2-5 on neutral floors against Illinois State. The Sycamores have won the last three meetings in the series after sweeping ILS during the 2020-21 season and taking the February 12 meeting in Terre Haute, 60-57.
 
HEAD COACH JOSH SCHERTZ
» Indiana State basketball is under new leadership as first-year head coach Josh Schertz takes over the reins of the program. Schertz takes over after a 13-year run at NCAA Division II Lincoln Memorial University where he had a career record of 337-69 (.831) en route to four national coach of the year honors. Schertz led the Railsplitters to 10 NCAA Division II Tournament appearances, won 14 total conference championships and three Southeast Regional titles, and had five seasons of 30-or-more victories.
 
LAST TIME OUT
» Indiana State and Northern Iowa both shot the ball over 57 percent, but it was UNI that walked away with an 88-82 victory on Wednesday. UNI forced 15 Sycamore turnovers which they converted into 18 points which proved to be the deciding factor. Cameron Henry recorded his 21st double-digit scoring effort with 23 points to lead all scorers.
 
WHAT ARE WE PLAYING FOR?
» Indiana State and Illinois State are locked in for a Thursday meeting in St. Louis with Saturday's game in Normal deciding which color jersey the teams will wear at Arch Madness. A win for the Sycamores will put Indiana State at the No. 8 seed while a loss will lock in the Sycamores to the No. 9 seed.
 
DOUBLE TROUBLE
» Indiana State's Cooper Neese and Cameron Henry both rank in the top-6 in the Missouri Valley in scoring with Neese coming in at No. 4 with 15.9 points per contest while Henry is scoring at a clip of 14.9 points per game which ranks sixth. Missouri State's Iaiaih Mosley (1st-20.0) and Gaige Prim (5th-15.9) are the only other duo to be inside the top-6 while SIU's Lance Jones (7th-14.9) and Marcus Domask (8th-14.8) are also in the top-10 in scoring respectively.
 
WELCOME TO THE CLUB
» Cooper Neese joined the Indiana State basketball 1,000-point club after scoring 19 against Southern Illinois in his last outing. Neese is the 41st ISU basketball player to do so.
 
HENRY IS A MATCHUP NIGHTMARE
» Cameron Henry has scored in double-figures in 21 of the 26 games he has seen action in, including 13 MVC contests. He is averaging 14.9 points, 5.8 rebounds, 2.9 assists and 1.0 steals per game. His scoring output is sixth, while his rebounding ranks ninth and assist mark ranks 10th in the MVC.
 
STEPHENS CLICKING AT THE RIGHT TIME
» Over his last four outings, forward Kailex Stephens is averaging a team high 16.3 points while playing 36.7 minutes per game. Stephens has scored at least 14 points in each game while going for a career high 21 against Southern Illinois. Stephens has also shown the ability to shoot the ball from deep at a much higher clip, going 4-for-7 from behind the arc at Drake, hitting a 3-pointer in all but one of his last four games. His 5.5 rebounds per game ranks second on the team during the stretch. 
 
GOOD FROM THE STRIPE
» ISU has improved its season average at the free-throw line to 78.2 percent -- good enough for third in the MVC and 12th nationally. Xavier Bledson leads ISU with an 88.6 percent (62-for-70) free throw percentage while Cooper Neese is shooting 82.3 percent (65-for-79) from the line. Six other Sycamores shoot 70 percent or better from the charity stripe. 
 
FOLLOW THE SYCAMORES
For the latest information on Sycamore Basketball, be sure to visit GoSycamores.com. You can also find the team on social media, including Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. Fans can also receive updates on Sycamore Athletics by downloading the March On App from both the App Store and the Google Play Store.