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November
21, 2006 FRESHMAN KELSEY LUNA POWERS SYCAMORES TO HOME OPENING VICTORY BOX SCORE (HTML) or BOX SCORE (PDF) TERRE HAUTE, Ind. – An Indiana State home opening record crowd saw freshman Kelsey Luna dazzle Eastern Illinois in her first regular season game at Hulman Center as the Sycamores showed their offensive might once again en route to a 102-86 victory tonight. ISU improved to 2-1 while Eastern Illinois fell to 2-2. ISU’s crowd of 3,042 is the most to ever cram into Hulman Center for an Indiana State home opener. They were not disappointed as Luna posted a career-best 27 points, hitting 9-of-11 shots from the field, including a perfect 6-of-6 from the three in the victory. ISU went over the century mark scoring in back-to-back games for the first time in the history of the program. Luna’s six 3-pointers in the game is the second highest single-game total in the history of the program, while the Sycamore record of seven 3-pointers has been attained on eight occasions in the past. “We have some players who can score and shoot,” Luna explained. “Tonight was just my night. I never expected to have a game like that by scoring that amount of points in my debut in this building and on this floor. I did play in the exhibition games, but tonight was different. It was more exciting.” The Sycamores placed four in double figures as Luna was joined by junior Angela Phillips with 17, sophomore Kara Schilli with a career-high 14 and sophomore Annie Bankhead with 10. Schilli did not miss a shot all night as she hit 5-of-5 attempts from the field as well as all four of her charity tosses. Bankhead has scored in double figures in each of the Sycamores’ first three games. “There really is not too much to complain about on the offensive side of the ball,” head coach Jim Wiedie said. “We have got kids on this team who can do multiple things. We are a more complete team this year, but they have to realize you must play as a team especially on the defensive end. One player can’t make all of the plays for us to be successful.” Eastern Illinois grabbed a quick 6-2 lead with 17:01 left in the first half, before Indiana State put together a 12-0 run over the next three minutes to take the lead they would never relinquish. Indiana State led in the first half by as many as 18 points on four separate occasions, the last coming on a pair of free throws by Schilli with 33 seconds left before the break to take a 52-34 advantage. EIU’s Ashley Thomas added a jumper with less than 10 seconds left to make the score 52-36 heading into the lockerroom. Indiana State come out full blast in the second half as the lead hit its highest point of the game at 30, 80-50, with 11:11 showing on the clock. ISU attained its largest lead by going on a 10-0 run over a three minute span that was capped with a Bankhead free throw. Showing no quit, Eastern Illinois whittled the Sycamore lead down to as few as 16 points on three occasions, including with 53 seconds left on a pair of Ellen Canale free throws. Indiana State hit 51.6% of its shots, connecting on 12-of-24 3-pointers in the game. ISU is averaging nearly 12 triples per game and is hitting over 50% of their attempts from long-range for the year. The Sycamore bench proved valuable as they scored 55 of the Sycamore points compared to just 23 for EIU. “Our offense was pretty good tonight,” junior Angela Phillips mentioned. “Right now we have got to concentrate and get better on defense. We knew coming in that Eastern Illinois was going to be physical inside and pack it in on defense. That left our shooters open from the outside.” The Panthers won the battle of the boards by a 45-32 margin, including 17 offensive rebounds. ISU hit 26-of-38 attempts from the charity stripe, while Eastern Illinois connected on 25-of-34 free throws in the game. ISU sophomore Leah Phillips recorded her first career blocked shot during the second half when she nicked a 3-point attempt by EIU’s Meggie Eck with 5:15 left to play. “We take great pride in the style that we play,” Wiedie said. “That includes defense. I’m very disappointed with our effort on defense and rebounding on both offense and defense.” That exciting style of play was not lost on Eastern Illinois head coach Brady Sallee, who walked away from the game with some positives of his own for the Panthers. “I have got so much respect for coach (Wiedie) and his team,” Sallee said. “It is important that we play this game every year. I felt like we came out here and competed as opposed to how we played here three years ago (ISU won that game 83-56). I am trying to emulate this Indiana State program. Tonight was a very exciting college basketball game.” With tonight’s win the Sycamores improve to 5-1 under head coach Jim Wiedie in home opening games. ISU is 36-17 in regular season non-conference games under the seventh-year head coach, including a mark of 18-3 in such games contested at Hulman Center. The Sycamores’ 102 points tie the 2003-04 victory over Wright State (102-52) for the most points in a home opening contest. Things get much tougher on the road next for Indiana State as they travel to No. 16 Michigan State on Friday, November 24 for a date with the Spartans at Breslin Center. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. (ET).
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