NORMAL -- It wasn’t just the new guys on Illinois State’s basketball team who were nervous Wednesday night.

“It’s even different for the old guys,” said ISU senior Lloyd Phillips. “We have to get acclimated to game situations. Your mind is moving a little fast. We got a win, but we have to get a lot better.”

ISU’s one and only exhibition game won’t be on the season highlight film. The Redbird defense came to play, though, holding Quincy to 29.8 percent shooting as ISU grinded out a 66-50 victory before a Redbird Arena crowd of 4,826.

“That was the best part of the night for us,” said ISU coach Tim Jankovich. “Defensively we really guarded. The numbers reflect it. Quincy is a good team. Illinois would attest to that. It was their third game and they were pretty comfortable out there.”

The Division II Hawks, who were within a point of the Illini with 10 minutes left before losing 84-63 three days ago, trailed 32-29 at halftime Wednesday. ISU, with five of seven newcomers playing at least nine minutes, opened the second half on a 9-1 run and maintained a double-digit lead for most of the second half.

Phillips sank four 3-pointers and paced the Redbirds with 14 points. Freshman Terry Johnson went 4-of-4 from the field and 2-of-2 at the line to add 11 points. Osiris Eldridge struggled with his shot, going 3-of-10 from the field, but had six assists to go with nine points.

Tony Lewis, a junior college transfer, added seven points and a game-high nine rebounds for the Redbirds. Lewis impressed the home fans with several hustle plays.

“Once we got into a flow a little bit we started playing better defense and our offense picked up as well,” said Lewis. “We got open shots for guys.”

One of those guys was freshman Justin Clark. After sinking his first basket, a 3-pointer with 11:07 left for a 51-36 lead, Clark pumped his fist as he felt a big weight lifted off his shoulders. He added two more 3-pointers to finish with nine points.

“I was a little nervous, but I got over it fast,” said Clark.

ISU was outrebounded by the smaller Hawks, 40-39, and gave up 12 offensive boards. The Redbirds shot a decent percentage (.429), but committed 11 turnovers and were 8 of 15 at the line.

“I don’t think we went after balls very well on the boards and we gave up easy stuff on rebounds. We have to work on that,” said Jankovich. “Offensively we never looked in sync. Maybe 10 percent of the time we got into some flow. We didn’t look like ourselves.”

Forward Billy Baptist, who used to play for Illinois-Chicago, led Quincy with 13 points and seven rebounds.

After playing Illinois and Notre Dame, Quincy coach Marty Bell said the Redbirds were just as physical as those squads. Bell called ISU’s Dinma Odiakosa the most physical player he has seen, which includes Notre Dame All-American Luke Harangody.

“That’s why we shot 30 percent for the game. We got open looks, but their physical play wore us down,” said Bell. “We didn’t have good strong legs under us on some of those shots.”

Two forwards — sophomore Jeremy Robinson and freshman Jon Ekey — didn’t play for ISU. Jankovich wasn’t ready to declare them redshirts just yet.

“I’m not ready to make those choices. As soon as I do we’ll talk about that,” he said.

Ready or not, the Redbirds’ season opener is at 2:30 p.m. Sunday at Southern Illinois-Edwardsville.

“I have to make some tough decisions early in the year as far as a rotation because it’s almost too early with all these new guys to have a rotation,” said Jankovich. “You can’t play this many people in games that count. I realize that.”

ISU junior guard Alex Rubin, who started, suffered a cut to his head late in the game when he was knocked to the court on a layup attempt. Rubin appeared wobbly after the game and was taken to a hospital to be checked out.

 

Redbird report card

FRONT COURT – C: Tony Lewis led way with nine points and seven boards and soon will be a crowd favorite with his hustle. Getting outrebounded shouldn’t have happened.

BACKCOURT – C+: ISU turned the heat up defensively out front in second half. Lloyd Phillips and Justin Clark combined for seven 3-pointers and could ease scoring burden on Osiris Eldridge.

BENCH – B-: Freshmen Terry Johnson (11 points) and Clark looked comfortable, while Jackie Carmichael showed flashes of his big upside.

OVERALL – C+: It was a struggle offensively, which wasn’t totally unexpected. Defense was better than anticipated ahead of Sunday’s opener at SIU-Edwardsville.

 

Illinois State 66, Quincy 50

AT NORMAL

QUINCY

    Min    FG    FT    Reb    A    PF    Pt

Baptist    30    5-12    2-2    7    2    2    13

Brock    11    0-3    1-2    2    0    0    1

Pierre    30    1-7    1-2    3    2    3    3

Edmonds    31    1-8    0-0    5    0    0    3

Belger    24    1-3    4-4    2    2    2    6

Hayes    15    2-5    0-2    2    2    2    4

Coleman    16    3-4    0-0    2    1    4    7

Burke    14    0-4    2-2    2    1    0    2

Thompson    6    1-1    0-0    2    0    1    2

Kueker    19    2-6    2-2    2    1    2    7

Wiss    4    1-4    0-0    6    0    1    2

Team                5

Totals    200    17-57    12-16    40    11    17    50

ILLINOIS STATE

    Min    FG    FT    Reb    A    PF    Pt

Lewis    23    3-5    1-1    9    1    2    7

Odiakosa    23    3-6    0-1    8    0    4    6

Eldridge    30    3-10    2-2    2    6    0    9

Rubin    15    0-3    0-0    1    1    1    0

Phillips    31    5-11    0-0    2    4    0    14

Upshaw    2    0-1    0-0    1    0    0    0

Coates    1    0-0    0-2    0    0    0    0

Johnson    9    4-4    2-2    1    0    2    11

Hill    18    1-3    2-4    1    2    2    5

Thornton    10    1-2    0-0    6    0    2    2   

Carmichael    19    1-3    1-3    4    0    2    3

Clark    18    3-8    0-0    1    1    1    9

Mishler    1    0-0    0-0    0    0    0    0

Team                3

Totals    200    24-56    8-15    39    15    16    66

Quincy    29    21    —   50

Illinois State    32    34    —   66

Three-point field goals: Quincy 4-19 (Baptist 1-2, Pierre 0-3, Edmonds 1-5, Coleman 1-1, Burke 0-4, Kueker 1-4); Illinois State 10-24 (Eldridge 1-5, Rubin 0-2, Phillips 4-8, Upshaw 0-1, Johnson 1-1, Hill 1-1, Clark 3-6).

Turnovers: Quincy 13; Illinois State 11. Blocked shots: Quincy 1 (Brock); Illinois State 5 (Odiakosa 2, Eldridge, Carmichael 2). Steals: Quincy 7 (Baptist, Pierre 2, Edmonds, Belger, Coleman, Kueker); Illinois State 6 (Eldridge, Phillips, Johnson, Hill, Carmichael 2).

Officials: Dohrmann, Odneal, Jones.

Attendance: 4,826.