Illinois State Survives a Scare in Exhibition

By: Ethan Hennessy

Normal Illinois

Despite leading for over 30 minuets of game time Truman State was unable to escape Normal with a win. Illinois State won their lone exhibition game 74-68 over Truman State Wednesday night inside Redbird Arena. This was a game that saw the host Redbirds fall behind 22-8 by the second media timeout, and only lead on the scoreboard for one minute and twenty four seconds. Illinois State guard Zack Copeland said after the game “I felt like we learned without getting burned”.

Illinois State started off the first half shooting the ball poorly particularly from long range. The redbirds went 2-14 from behind the ARC. When asked about his poor shooting in the first half Muller said “we were just jacking up shots without getting paint touches”.

Illinois State brings the ball up in the second half of Wednesday night’s exhibition contest. 

In the second half though they slowly chipped away at the deficit. Once the redbirds finally tied the game back up at 50 at the 8:30 mark the crowd erupted. The teams battled back and forth until about the final 30 seconds when Illinois State was able to pull away by multiple possessions.

Up next for Illinois State they will take on the Belmont Bruins out of the Ohio valley Conference at home on Wednesday November 6th. For the Truman State Bulldogs they will play at the University of Findlay (OH).