SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – The eighth-ranked University of Southern Indiana men's basketball team completed a sweep of the two-game road swing and won its sixth in a row with a 78-61 win over the University of Illinois-Springfield Thursday night in Springfield, Illinois. USI raises its record to 11-1 overall and 3-1 in the GLVC, while UI-Springfield falls to 4-7, 0-4 GLVC.
The Screaming Eagles opened the game with a seven point lead, 12-5, before the Prairie Stars fought back to take a brief lead, 20-19. USI regained the momentum with a 14-4 run and built a nine-point lead, 33-24, with 2:43 left in the opening half. The teams would go into the locker room at the intermission with USI leading by seven, 38-31.
USI soared out of the locker room to start the second half, scoring the first eight points and pushing the lead to 15 points, 46-31. UI-Springfield would not get any closer than 13 points the rest of the way as USI would go on to lead by as many as 20 points twice
Eagles' junior guard
Brandon Hogg (Edwardsville, Illinois) led the way for the Eagles with a career-high 25 points, 17 coming in the second half. Hogg was nine-of-12 from the field, including four three-point field goals, while posting two steals and a block.
Junior forward
Isaac McClure (Paducah, Kentucky) followed in the scoring column with 16 points, 12 coming in the first half, while senior guard
Jared Rehmel (Jasonville, Indiana) dropped in a season-best 13 points.
The USI double-figure scorers were rounded out by senior guard #C.J. Trotter# (Hopkinsville, Kentucky), who had 12 points.
As a team, the Eagles shot 50 percent for the first time in three games, hitting 31-of-62. USI also was 50 percent from long range, dropping in seven-of-14 three-point field goal attempts.
The Eagles return to the friendly surroundings of the Physical Activities Center to start a three-game homestand this week, beginning Thursday with Maryville University.
Maryville fell to 3-7 overall and 0-3 in the GLVC after losing at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, 61-46, tonight. USI won the first meeting between the two programs last season when the Eagles defeated the Saints, 153-88, in St. Louis, Missouri.
The second game of the homestand is Saturday when the Eagles host the Miners of Missouri University of Science & Technology. The Miners saw their record fall to 6-5, 2-2 GLVC, after losing a four-point game at Rockhurst University, 68-64, this evening.
USI leads the all-time series with Missouri S&T, 10-2, after defeating the Miners last year, 72-59. The Eagles also are 3-0 against the Miners in the last three match-ups at the PAC.
