DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The top-seeded Indiana State Sycamores opened their run at the 2023 Discount Tire College Basketball Invitational with a 67-62 first-round win over No. 16 USC Upstate Saturday morning inside the Ocean Center. This year's CBI marks Indiana State's first postseason appearance since 2014 and first postseason win since 2001.
 
The Sycamores advance to the tournament quarterfinals Monday, March 20 at noon, and will face the winner of the No. 8 Eastern Kentucky versus No. 9 Cleveland State matchup, which takes place Sunday, March 19 at 11 a.m.
 
Courvoisier McCauley led the Sycamores on both ends of the court with 20 points and a tied season-high 11 rebounds for his fourth double-double of the season. Cameron Henry added 19 points alongside six rebounds, a block, and two steals. Freshman Robbie Avila rounded out the Sycamores in double figures with 10 points in addition to a block and two steals.
 
Indiana State (23-12) got off to a slow start but was able to get things going with a vicious block from Henry followed by a triple to get on the board at 17:06. ISU and Upstate (16-16) exchanged threes to open the game and were tied at 6-6 with 16:31 to go in the first frame. The Sycamores got down 17-8 after back-to-back Upstate triples, but Cade McKnight checked in with a layup to end the Spartan run, and McCauley put up six straight points with a triple followed by an and-1 to make it 19-16 at 11:11.
 
A Henry and-1 and then an Avila layup gave ISU its first lead of the game before Avila nailed a triple to put the Sycamores up 27-24 with 5:07 to go in the half. Upstate hit a layup in the closing seconds to go into halftime down by one at 35-34 after Julian Larry drilled a half court shot at the buzzer that left his hands a split second too late and did not count.
 
Upstate opened the second half with a couple of quick buckets to go up 39-35, but Henry tied it up at 41-all with a jumper at 16:44 and McCauley hit back-to-back buckets to put ISU up 48-45 with 14:21 to go. Indiana State would not concede the lead again in the game and used a 10-0 run to go up 53-45 at 13:02. Cooper Neese cushioned the ISU lead with a triple at 8:50 to make it 63-51
 
The 12-point cushion proved crucial as the Sycamores shot 1-of-13 in their last 13 field goal attempts including 0-of-8 in the last 4:37 of the game. Upstate went on a 6-0 run and then cut its deficit to three points with 3:08 to go, but the Sycamores held them scoreless in that final 3:08 and Avila hit a pair of free throws in the last seven seconds to close things out.

Inside the Numbers

• The Sycamores committed 15 turnovers in the game including 10 in the first half alone. Upstate was able to turn ISU's miscues into 10 points.
• Indiana State shot 44.6 percent from the field compared to Upstate's 37.7 percent, but the Spartans had 13 more attempts than the Sycamores.
• Upstate was 26-of-69 from the field and Indiana State was 25-of-56. It came down to 3-pointers and free throws as the Sycamores were 8-of-9 from the charity stripe with nine threes while the Spartans were 5-of-9 at the line with five threes.
• Upstate had nine blocks and eight steals in the game compared to Indiana State's three blocks and five steals.

News & Notes

• Saturday's win marks a couple milestones for the Sycamores. It is Indiana State's first-ever CBI win, first postseason win since 2001, and head coach Josh Schertz's first Division I postseason win. It's also the first time ISU has won 23 games in a season since 2013-14.
• Courvoisier McCauley's 20-point, 11-rebound effort marks his fourth double-double of the season. He is one of 12 MVC players with four or more double-doubles this season.
• It was also McCauley's 10th 20-point effort this season. He is one of just six MVC players with 10 or more 20-point games this year.
• McCauley's five 3-pointers in today's game bring his season total to 106 triples, which ranks second in ISU program history for 3-pointers in a single season behind Jordan Printy with 117 in 2017-2018.
• Indiana State improves to 5-2 in neutral site games this season.
• The Sycamores are the only remaining Missouri Valley Conference team in postseason play as Bradley lost its first round NIT matchup against Wisconsin and Drake lost its first round NCAA Tournament matchup against Miami.
• Following Indiana State's CBI appearance in 2010, the Sycamores went 20-14 the next season with an NCAA Tournament appearance.

Follow the Sycamores
For the latest information on the Sycamore Men's Basketball team, make sure to check out GoSycamores.com. You can also find the team on social media including Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.  Fans can also receive updates on Sycamore Athletics by downloading the March On App from both the App Store and the Google Play Store.
 
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