TERRE HAUTE, Ind. - Indiana State plays its second straight Valley road game Wednesday night when the Sycamores tip off against Illinois State at 8 p.m. ET from CEFCU Arena in Normal, Ill.
 
The Sycamores will be looking to remain unbeaten in Valley play this season on Wednesday. At 4-0, ISU has continued its best start to Valley play since 2014-15 when the team started off 5-0. Indiana State still sits alone atop the Valley standings as the only remaining unblemished team in league play.
 
With an overall mark of 11-4 and Valley record of 4-0 so far this season, the Sycamores have already matched last season's number of overall and Valley wins. ISU finished last year at 11-20 overall and 4-14 in conference play.
 
In Sunday afternoon's 68-50 win at Valparaiso, transfer Cade McKnight posted his first double-double in a Sycamore uniform with an Indiana State career-high 13 points and 11 rebounds. The Sycamores opened the game on a 6-0 run and did not trail at any point in the game en route to their second straight win.
 
After posting a career-high 21 points on 8-of-8 shooting against Evansville Dec. 29, Julian Larry made his second straight start Sunday at Valpo and put up 11 points alongside a tied career-high six assists. In conference play this season, Larry is averaging 9.5 points per game and 3.5 assists per game with just two turnovers. He ranks second in the Valley with a 2.44 assist-to-turnover ratio and is the only Valley player to shoot 100 percent from the field with seven or more attempts against a Division I opponent this season.
 
The Sycamores lead the Valley in scoring (81.20ppg), field goal percentage (47.6%), scoring margin (+11.13), assists per game (16.07), and assist-to-turnover ratio (1.30). Additionally, ISU ranks in the top five of the Valley in 3-point field goal percentage, 3-pointers made, rebounds, free throw percentage, steals, and turnover margin.
 
Indiana State's leading scorer Courvoisier McCauley is the only Valley player with multiple 30-point outings this season and he is one of eight Valley players with five or more 20-point outings. He paces all Sycamore scorers with 16.9 points per game this season. McCauley extended his double-digit scoring streak to eight games Sunday afternoon and made it three straight games with three triples. He has connected for at least one 3-pointer in each game this season and has hit three or more in nine games this season.

SERIES HISTORY
Wednesday will be the 131st meeting all-time between Indiana State and Illinois State, and the Sycamores trail 61-69 in the overall series dating back to 1914. ISU is 19-43 against the Redbirds on the road and will be looking for its 20th win in Normal.
 
The Sycamores won five of six against the Redbirds from Feb. 20, 2019 to Feb. 12, 2022, but have since dropped the last two meetings, and in the last 10 matchups, the series is tied 5-5.
 
Indiana State and Illinois State faced each other three times last season. Their first meeting of the year on Feb. 12, 2022 would turn out to be Indiana State's last win of the season, 60-57 at home, and the Sycamores dropped their regular season finale to the Redbirds on the road, 86-66, before falling again to the Redbirds in the first round of Arch Madness, 58-53, on March 3, 2022.

LAST GAME AGAINST THE REDBIRDS
Indiana State saw its season come to a close in the first round of the MVC Tournament, falling to Illinois State 58-53 inside the Enterprise Center in St. Louis. The Sycamores led by as many as 10 points at 43-33 with 11:45 left in the second half but hit a cold streak late as the Redbirds ended the game on a 25-10 run. ILS was able to hold the Sycamores without a field goal in the final 3:44 of action.
 
ISU had opportunities late to close the gap but missed free throws proved to be costly. All-MVC player Antonio Reeves was held in check in the first half, scoring just four points. Reeves was able to get things going in the final 20 minutes shooting 5-of-8 from the field, including a pair of fast break dunks off of ISU turnovers to finish with 15 points to lead the Redbirds.
 
Kailex Stephens reached double-digits for the 15th time this season and the sixth-straight game as he led the Sycamores with 12 points on 4-for-7 shooting to go with seven rebounds. Zach Hobbs matched Stephens with a team-high 12 points, coming off the bench to hit four 3-pointers. Julian Larry led ISU with eight rebounds to go with four points as the defensive specialist held Reeves to 7-for-15 shooting.
 
The loss extended the Sycamore losing streak to six games, the longest losing streak of the season. The Sycamores closed out the season with an 11-20 record and 27-39 all-time in the MVC Tournament. ISU failed to make it to the quarterfinal round for the first time since 2019. ISU made seven treys to tie a school season record of 270 treys in a season.

ILLINOIS STATE AT A GLANCE
Illinois State was picked to finish 10th in the Valley preseason poll and currently sits at 1-3 in league play with its lone win coming against Belmont at home.
 
The Redbirds are coming off back-to-back Valley losses, falling to UIC on the road and then to UNI at home to close out 2022.
 
Illinois State is led in scoring by Kendall Lewis and Darius Burford with 11.9 and 10.3 points per game, respectively. Lewis also leads the Redbirds on the boards with 7.1 rebounds per game, and Seneca Knight is contributing 9.7 points and 6.6 rebounds per game.
 
The Redbirds rank ninth in the country in free throw percentage, making 79.1 percent of their free tries.
 
Kendall Lewis is one of just seven players in NCAA Division I this season to have at least 19 assists, 15 blocks, and 24 steals, while scoring 170+ points.
 
Malachi Poindexter is one of four student-athletes in the country to be perfect on his free throw tries this season with at least 17 makes and attempts.

LAST TIME OUT
The Indiana State Sycamores opened the 2023 calendar year with a 68-50 win against Valparaiso Sunday afternoon on the road behind a double-double effort from Cade McKnight who posted a Sycamore career-high 13 points and 11 rebounds en route to Indiana's State's second straight double-digit Valley win.
 
After starting the game off on a 6-0 run, the Sycamores did not trail the Beacons at any point in the game. Indiana State went on its biggest run of the day in the second half, scoring 13 straight points for a game-high 22-point lead at 16:38 in the frame.
 
Valpo cut its deficit to three points with 6:10 to go in the first half, but Indiana State responded with an 8-0 run to go back up by 11 at 2:27. McKnight pulled in a defensive rebound and went down to knock down a triple with 56 second left in the half to send Indiana State into halftime with a 36-24 lead.
 
That McKnight triple in the last minute of the first half would go on to spark a 13-0 run that ran over into the second half and was capped by back-to-back McCauley triples for a 46-24 lead at 16:38. Meanwhile, from 6:23 in the first half to 15:43 in the second, the Beacons shot 0-of-15 from the field.
 
Valpo would knock down five straight free throws to start closing in on its deficit and later came as close as 12 points of the Sycamores at 60-48 with 3:01 remaining, but McKnight ripped away an offensive rebound and drew an and-1 on the putback, completing the three-point play to put the Sycamores back up by 15 points. Cooper Neese closed things out with a pair of free throws and a triple in the last 1:13.
 
Cooper Neese led the Sycamores with 16 points in the game, pushing his double-digit scoring streak to four games. He shot 5-of-5 from the charity stripe and has not missed a free throw since the second half against Northern Illinois on Dec. 22. With 13 points in the game, Courvoisier McCauley extended his double-digit scoring streak to eight games and made it three straight games with three triples. He has connected for at least one 3-pointer in each game this season and has hit three or more in nine games this season. Julian Larry made his second straight start and posted 11 points for back-to-back double-digit scoring efforts. He also tied his career-high of six assists.

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.
- -March On- -