DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The No. 1 seeded Indiana State Sycamores saw their season end in the CBI Quarterfinals with an 89-88 overtime loss to No. 8 Eastern Kentucky Monday afternoon inside the Ocean Center. ISU closes the year with a 23-13 mark while EKU improves to 22-13 and advances to the semifinals to face No. 4 Southern Utah Tuesday, March 21 at 7 p.m. ET.
 
There were 14 ties and 11 lead changes in the game with neither team gaining a lead greater than nine. The Sycamores and Colonels went bucket-for-bucket in the overtime period, and a Cooper Neese three gave ISU an 88-87 lead with 55 seconds to go, but EKU pulled down an offensive board and drew a foul for a trip to the line with 19 seconds remaining. Isaiah Cozart knocked down both free throws for the Colonels and ISU missed three straight jumpers on the other end in the last four seconds as EKU held on for the one-point victory.
 
All five Sycamore starters scored in double figures, led by Neese and Courvoisier McCauley with 17 points apiece. Neese was one board shy of a double-double, pulling down a team-high nine rebounds. He scored 10 points in the first half while McCauley and Julian Larry combined for 21 points in the second half. Larry finished with 13 points, and Robbie Avila posted 15 points with six rebounds and three assists while Cameron Henry contributed 12 points and dished out a game-high eight assists.
 
Henry hit back-to-back buckets to even things up at 12-12 with 13:59 to go in the opening frame, and then Avila gave ISU a six-point lead with eight points in two minutes as part of a 10-2 run that made it 22-16 at 12:21. A McCauley three and free throw pushed that lead to eight points, and Xavier Bledson got the lead back to eight with two straight layups that made it 35-27 at 5:49.
 
EKU responded with a 10-0 run to take a 37-35 lead, and the two teams went back-and-forth before being tied at 43-43 with 36 seconds to go in the first half. EKU committed a foul with 0.6 on the clock and then received a technical that sent Neese to the line for five shots. He made four of the five shots to get him to double figures and send ISU into halftime with a 47-43 lead.
 
Henry and McCauley hit double figures with quick buckets to open the second half which put the Sycamores up 52-43 two minutes into the frame, but EKU answered with a 13-0 run to go up 56-52 at 13:42. Bledson ended ISU's nearly five-minute scoring drought with a layup at 13:30, and the Sycamores played from behind through most of rest of the second half. They fought back to even things up at 78-all with McCauley's fifth three of the day at 3:19.
 
The two teams were tied 80-80 in the final minute before Larry swiped a pass and ISU called a timeout with 14.7 on the clock but the Sycamores couldn't get a clean shot off out of the timeout in the closing seconds, sending the game into overtime.
 
ISU and EKU exchanged buckets throughout the overtime period and ISU led 88-87 after a Neese triple with 55 seconds left. The Colonels missed a jumper and won the bobbling battle for the rebound, and then Henry was called for his fifth foul of the game which sent Cozart to the line with 19 seconds left. He made both free throws and ISU called a timeout with 13.9 on the clock. Out of the timeout, Neese's first jumper was blocked but he got a second chance for a go-ahead bucket. He missed again but Avila snagged the offensive board for one last chance at a long jumper at the buzzer but was just short of making it. Avila had three points, a rebound, two assists, and a steal in overtime while Neese had five points in the period.
 
Inside the Numbers

• There were 14 ties and 11 lead changes in the game, and neither team ever led by double figures. Indiana State's largest lead was by nine and EKU's was by seven.
• Indiana State committed a tied season-high 18 turnovers, with 10 in the second half and none of them coming in overtime. EKU scored 16 points off ISU's turnovers.
• The Sycamores had 18 assists in the game, dishing out 13 in the first half on 18 baskets with just five in the second half.
• McCauley posted a team-high in scoring for the second straight game, hitting five threes in both of those outings.
• Indiana State shot 32-of-60 (53.3%) from the field compares to EKU's 34-of-69 (49.3%). Each team had nine threes and ISU was 15-of-20 at the free throw line while EKU was 12-of-14 at the line.
• Both teams pulled down 27 boards, with EKU grabbing three more on the offensive end and ISU grabbing three more on the defensive end.

News & Notes

• Cooper Neese ends his Indiana State career as ISU's all-time leader in games played with 137, and his two 3-pointers in the game make 231 triples for his career which ranks fourth on ISU's list of career threes made.
• With 15 points in the game, Robbie Avila passed Brenton Scott for fourth place on ISU's all-time list of freshmen scoring marks. Avila ended his impressive freshman campaign with 363 points.
• Courvoisier McCauley's five threes in the game brought his season total to 111 which ranks second on ISU's all-time list of 3-pointers in a single season, just six triples shy of tying the program record (117 by Jordan Printy in 2017-18).
• After breaking the program record for team threes in a single season earlier this year, Indiana State ends the season with 340 triples for the new official program record. The previous record was 217 originally set in 2017-18 and tied last season.
• Indiana State dropped to 5-3 in neutral site games this season.
• Going into Monday's game, the Sycamores were 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.
• The Sycamores ended their 2022-23 campaign with 23 wins for the first time since 2013-14 and just the second time since Larry Bird's Final Four team that won 33 games in 1978-79.
• The 2023 CBI marked Indiana State's first postseason appearance since 2014, and ISU's first-round win over USC Upstate was the team's first postseason win since 2001.

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