TERRE HAUTE —
Every journey starts with a single step. As Indiana State’s men’s basketball team began its two-week trek to St. Louis and the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament, it was equally important to regain a spring in that step.
The satisfaction of winning is a simple thing, but it’s a feeling ISU badly needed to regain.
The Sycamores were all smiles when Dawon Cummings converted a layup with 4 seconds left to lift ISU to a 65-64 win over Iona on Saturday at Hulman Center in its BracketBusters’ swan song.
The victory was far from seamless – ISU shot 50 percent at the free throw line and had 15 turnovers – but beauty is in the eye of the beholder. The Sycamores gladly put their three-game losing streak to bed and were pleased to carry positive momentum into the final week of the regular season.
“It doesn’t matter at this point [how pretty the win was]. We needed to get that confidence back and go forward. When you lose three in a row, you feel like you haven’t won a game in a year,” said ISU forward Manny Arop, who had a season-high 12 rebounds.
R.J. Mahurin led ISU with 16 points, one of four Sycamores in double-figures, the first time ISU has had that many players breach the mark since Feb. 2. Cummings had 13.
Iona’s Lamont “MoMo” Jones led the Gaels with 26 points. Taaj Ridley added 16.
ISU (17-11) was successful, for the most part, at forcing its pace on the Gaels. Iona averaged 81.5 points entering the contest, third-best in the nation, but ISU’s defense frustrated the Gaels when they had to rely on their half-court game.
ISU was particularly effective against Sean Armand – a 43 percent 3-point shooter. He was 0-for-4 from long range. Overall, Iona was 2 of 16 from 3-point land.
“Manny was terrific. He was on Armand a lot of the time. He didn’t give him a decent look the whole game. He’s expending tons of energy on the defensive end. Then he gets nine defensive rebounds?” ISU coach Greg Lansing said.
The problem for ISU wasn’t its defense, but its offense giving Iona free chances. Iona scored 18 points off ISU’s 15 turnovers, many of which were unforced. Moreover, ISU’s 8 of 16 performance at the free throw line nearly cost it dearly.
The turnovers and missed free throws overshadowed good aspects of ISU’s offense. The Sycamores shared the ball well and had a season-high 18 assists.
There were three lead changes and four ties in the first half, but it seemed ISU had gained the upper hand by finished the first half on a 12-2 run. Iona scored just two points in the final eight minutes of the half as the Sycamores led 30-22 at the break.
ISU’s lead peaked at 10 early in the second half when its demons began to take hold. A 9-2 Iona run was built on the back of two ISU’s turnovers and ISU’s lead was sliced to 34-31.
ISU led 42-36 when the turnovers became chronic. Giveaways on three consecutive trips led directly to Iona points and the Gaels took a 45-42 lead.
ISU fought back and a pair of 3-pointers by Lucas Eitel put ISU in front 57-53 with 6:21 to go. It would be the last time either team would lead by more than a possession.
With 1:12 left, a Jake Odum 3-pointer put ISU up 63-62 entering the final minute. ISU defended Iona well on a Gaels offensive possession that would eat up most of that final minute, including blocked shots by Cummings and Justin Gant, but Iona managed to get the loose ball and a tie-up with 29 seconds.
ISU continued to play strong defense, but it appeared fortune had abandoned the Sycamores when Cummings was whistled for a touch foul on Armand with 9 seconds left. Armand made both free throws to put Iona up 64-63.
“I don’t know how much I would’ve heard it from coach after that foul. I’m glad I was able to make the layup and change the game a little bit,” Cummings said.
Cummings’ game-winner started when Odum dribbled up the left side and found the junior guard in the left corner. Cummings drove baseline, converted his layup to put ISU up one, and was fouled by Armand. Cummings missed the free throw, but the damage had already been done to the Gaels.
“It was a great play by Dawon to take it to the rim. It was huge. We haven’t had a finish like that in a while. He stepped up and made the play,” Mahurin said.
It was ISU’s first February BracketBusters victory since 2009. ISU also clinched its fourth consecutive winning season which matched the 1998-2001 era for the Sycamores. If ISU had lost to Iona, and lost all of its remaining games and a possible postseason game, it would’ve finished at .500.
For Iona, the loss was excruciating. The Gaels (15-13) have lost five of their last six -- all of the losses were by a possession or less and by a total margin of 11 points.
ISU plays host to Drake on Wednesday in its final regular season home game of the season. ISU finished MVC play next Saturday at Evansville.
Lansing didn’t mince words when emphasizing the importance of Wednesday’s game against Drake
“It’s big that we won. Wednesday is the Super Bowl as far as I’m concerned with Drake coming in here,” Lansing said.
“I told them we have three seasons left. This is a three-game season, St. Louis is hopefully a three-game season and then there’s the postseason. I told to attack them one at a time and see how we do,” he added.
IONA (64) – Ridley 6-12 3-4 16, Laury 3-6 3-4 9, Jones 8-20 10-11 26, Sledge 0-3 0-0 0, Armand 2-10 2-2 6, Gomez 1-3 0-0 3, Bowman 2-5 0-0 4, Dennis 0-0 0-0 0. 22-59 FG, 18-21 FT, 64 TP.
INDIANA STATE (65) – Gant 2-5 2-4 6, Mahurin 6-11 2-6 16, Arop 4-16 2-2 10, Cummings 6-9 0-0 13, Odum 3-7 2-2 10, Kitchell 0-0 0-0 0, Eitel 2-7 0-0 6, Brown 1-1 0-0 2, Burnett 1-3 0-0 2, K. Smith 0-3 0-2 0. 25-62 FG, 8-16 FT, 65 TP.
Halftime score – ISU 30-22. 3-point goals – IC 2-16 (Gomez 1-3, Ridley 1-2, Jones 0-5, Armand 0-4, Sledge 0-1, Bowman 0-1), ISU 7-20 (Eitel 2-6, Mahurin 2-3, Odum 2-3, Cummings 1-1, Arop 0-4, Burnett 0-2, K. Smith 0-1). Rebounds – IC 39 (Laury 11, Bowman 11, Ridley 7, Armand 5, Team 2, Jones, Gomez, Dennis), ISU 40 (Arop 12, Mahurin 6, Gant 5, Cummings 5, Odum 4, Team 4, Kitchell, Eitel, Burnett, K. Smith), Assists – IC 9 (Jones 3, Laury 2, Gomez 2, Armand, Bowman), ISU 18 (Odum 7, Brown 3, Gant 2, Mahurin, Arop, Kitchell, Eitel), Steals – IC 10 (Jones 5, Bowman 2, Laury, Sledge, Armand), ISU 7 (Mahurin 2, Cummings 2, Gant, Cummings, Eitel), Blocks – IC 1 (Armand), ISU 6 (Gant 2, Arop, Cummings, Mahurin, Burnett), Turnovers – IC 14 (Jones 3, Laury 3, Ridley 2, Armand 2, Sledge, Dennis), ISU 15 (Brown 4, Arop 3, Cummings 3, Odum 2, Gant, Mahurin, K. Smith), Total fouls – IC 16, ISU 17. Fouled out – Armand. A – 4378.
Next – ISU (17-11) plays host to Drake on Wednesday. Iona (15-13) plays host to Loyola (Md.) on Friday.
Indiana State University
Related Photos
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Tribune-Star/Joseph C. Garza Three on one: Indiana State's Manny Arop puts up a shot among three Iona defenders during the Sycamores' 65-64 win Saturday at Hulman Center.
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Tribune-Star/Joseph C. Garza 2 for 22: Indiana State's Brandon Burnett scores as he drives to the basket against Iona's Taaj Ridley during the Sycamores' 65-64 win Saturday at Hulman Center.
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Tribune-Star/Joseph C. Garza The way to get it started: Indiana State's R.J. Mahurin shoots his first three-pointer of the game over Iona's David Laury during the Sycamores' 65-64 win Saturday at Hulman Center.
Discussion
Sycamores regain spring in step with BracketBusters win against Iona
Cummings hits game-winner to lift Indiana State
- Indiana State University
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ISU's athletic treasure trove
Think of every championship that Indiana State has won in each of its sports, past and present. Think of every tournament — postseason or regular season — which the Sycamores have claimed as their own.
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Ort sets ISU RBI record in 16-7 win
Robby Ort celebrated his Indiana State baseball Senior Day on Saturday by becoming the Sycamores’ all-time leader in RBIs as ISU ended its regular season with a 16-7 win over Bradley at Bob Warn Field.
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Bradley ends 16-game MVC losing streak against ISU
Momentum was the only thing riding on Indiana State’s baseball game against Bradley on Friday. With a five-game winning streak going, ISU wanted to keep the good vibes going into next week’s Missouri Valley Conference Tournament.
ISU couldn’t do it. -
Indiana State to host 2014 MVC baseball tourney
Build it… and they will come. The Missouri Valley Conference and Indiana State University made that famous line from the movie “Fields Of Dreams” reality Thursday.
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Behind 16 hits and Manaea's pitching, ISU beats Bradley
Indiana State’s baseball team rode a wild ride of emotion on Thursday.
First came the public announcement that Bob Warn Field would host the 2014 Missouri Valley Conference Tournament. Later, Sean Manaea’s availability to pitch ISU’s series opener against Bradley was in doubt. -
TODD GOLDEN: Don't give up on ISU baseball just yet
If you had to pick one word that would describe the 2013 Indiana State baseball season, it would have to be frustration.
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ISU baseball team builds on success with 14-2 rout
Indiana State’s baseball victory over Alcorn State on Friday would take on more meaning Saturday if the Sycamores could build momentum and pick up on the good work they did in Friday’s ninth-inning rally.
Mission accomplished.
The Sycamores were aggressive from the opening inning at the plate and starting pitcher Devin Moore gave them eight valuable and effective innings on the mound as ISU defeated Alcorn State 14-2 at Bob Warn Field.
“It was a really good experience for everybody. It felt great to finally come out here and put some things together. It’s also really nice when your offense puts a lot of runs on the board,” Moore said.
Moore’s eight innings of work were as valuable as gold to an ISU team that is short on quality arms due to injury and ineffectiveness. He didn’t allow a hit until the fourth inning and one of the two runs he conceded was unearned. -
ISU earns badly-needed win
Alcorn State’s baseball team might be ranked in the bottom 10 in RPI and Indiana State might have never lost to a Southwestern Athletic Conference team. So it wouldn’t appear that a quality win was in the offing when Alcorn State visited Bob Warn Field on Friday.
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ISU’s Mascari and Hope win MVC track & field titles
Indiana State produced two champions during the opening day of action in the Missouri Valley Conference track and field championships Friday at Drake. Freshman John Mascari, a Terre Haute native, won the men’s 10,000-meter race and Nicole Hope won the women’s pole vault for the second time in three seasons.
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ISU pole vault tradition continues with help from its author
Pole vault is track and field for the adrenaline junkie, Indiana State senior Nicole Hope proclaimed during a recent practice at Marks Field.
To catapult oneself about 14 feet into the air with a large $500 fiberglass pole on a daily basis is a risky endeavor.
“We have to be fearless. You can’t be afraid at all,” said Hope, who has also catapulted herself into the NCAA’s elite in the event, ranking 15th in the NCAA with her leap of 13-feet, 9 1/4. -
Lansing looking for more home games for next fall
Indiana State’s men’s basketball team is looking for a few good games.
Home games that is.
The Sycamores have filled in most of the blanks in their nonconference schedule, but as ever, ISU coach Greg Lansing would like to visit the friendly confines of Hulman Center a bit more often. -
ISU baseball gets back into rhythm with victory
Baseball is a rhythm game. With contests every day or five times a week in the case of many college programs, you have the chance to build on success or wallow in a slump.
Mother Nature took that rhythm away from Indiana State’s team last week. After a 7-1 loss to Indiana on April 24, ISU was supposed to play a three-game series at Tennessee-Martin, but it was wiped out by rain.
So the rhythm was disturbed, but perhaps that wasn’t a bad thing.
ISU was in a five-game losing streak before its unintended vacation and the Sycamores made a move in the right direction Wednesday with a 7-0 win over DePauw at Bob Warn Field.
“It was a disappointing weekend. We went all the way down to Tennessee and didn’t get to play. We sat around in the hotel room. We came here and it was still raining. It was nice to get out and see some live pitching,” ISU center fielder Landon Curry said. -
Metro roundup: ISU hands out spring awards
The Indiana State University athletic community, along with family, friends and fans, paused Tuesday night to honor the spring sports teams at the Terre Haute Savings Bank Spring Sports Banquet.
Most of the ISU teams are still in competition with the baseball team having 13 games left of its regular-season schedule before beginning the Missouri Valley Conference tournament May 21, the softball team with just three games left of the docket this coming weekend against Southern Illinois and the track and field program with just one more meet before beginning its postseason events.
The ISU women’s golf team is the team that has ended at this time, with the group recording a sixth-place finish at the MVC championships one week ago. -
Indiana State loses 2 in MVC softball
Indiana State aspired to upset Illinois State to get at least a doubleheader split in Missouri Valley Conference softball Thursday at Price Field as the Sycamores opened an eight-game season-ending homestand.
Paige Schreiner hit a two-run blast over the left-field fence in the fifth inning and junior Shelby Wilson delivered a sizzling RBI triple down the right-field line in the sixth as ISU ended the day playing well against the league’s highest-scoring offense.
The result was still a 5-3 loss to the Redbirds (26-18, 11-6 Missouri Valley Conference) as freshman Halle Humphrey gave up four runs in the first two innings. Humphrey, called upon to pitch the opener as well — she’s the only full-time pitcher remaining on the team — gave up six runs and eight hits as the Sycamores dropped a 6-1 game to start the day. -
ISU, MVFC brace for change at FCS football level
It seemed so far-fetched.
Internet rumors circulated that Indiana State had been approached by the Sun Belt Conference to bring the Sycamores’ football team into the Sun Belt’s fold.
The Sun Belt is part of the Football Bowl Subdivision. Bowl football. Big boy football … and all it entails.
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ISU football in good spirits after healthy Spring Game
Was Saturday afternoon’s weather an omen for Indiana State football as the Sycamores wrapped up spring practice with the annual Blue-White Game at Memorial Stadium? After several practices conducted in less-than-perfect conditions, they’d like to think so.
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Loyola ready to take big step
Loyola University and the Missouri Valley Conference took their first steps together Friday and the MVC is hoping the Ramblers don’t have to take too many baby steps before they become a competitive part of the conference.
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Sanford wraps up first spring with ISU
The final day of Indiana State football’s first Mike Sanford experience is upon the Sycamores.
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Lansing excited about Etherington's signing with Sycamores
The spring signing period for men’s basketball is usually a time to use available scholarships to load up on junior college additions and transfers.
To find a diamond-in-the-rough at the high school level who can give you four years? That’s harder to come by. -
Creighton sweep puts ISU in thick of things
In a difficult early-season Missouri Valley Conference schedule, Indiana State took its lumps. Unenviable back-to-back trips to contenders Missouri State and Wichita State had ISU reeling with five straight MVC losses eight days ago.
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Second City in the Valley: Loyola joins the MVC
For the first time in its history, the Missouri Valley Conference will have a home in the Second City.
The Chicago Tribune confirmed Saturday via a Loyola University source that the Ramblers will replace Creighton as the MVC’s 10th team. Loyola — a member of the Horizon League — will join the MVC effective July 1.
Indiana State Director of Athletics Ron Prettyman — who was part of the MVC search committee that scouted potential replacements for Creighton — confirmed Sunday that the Ramblers were in the MVC loop. -
Sycamore baseball holds off Creighton rally
By his own estimation, Indiana State baseball coach Rick Heller has been involved in close to 2,000 baseball games. If anyone has seen it all on the field, he’d be as good a candidate as any.
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Devin Moore pitches gem in 6-1 victory over Creighton
A hip injury suffered by Indiana State ace starting pitcher Sean Manaea shuffled the Sycamores’ starting rotation for the second weekend running as it opened a Missouri Valley Conference home series against Creighton on Friday.
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Sanford gets 2nd look at Sycamores
In the immediate aftermath of a practice, game, or in Friday’s case for Indiana State, a scrimmage, most football coaches defer to the film to paint a true picture of what was and wasn’t done. ISU coach Mike Sanford is no different. With the flurry of activity on both sides of the ball, it’s hard to get a true evaluation of anything watching it live.
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ISU center FN Lutz glad to be back in the middle of things
For someone who missed an entire season due to a knee injury, Indiana State center FN Lutz has certainly kept himself visible since then.
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METRO ROUNDUP: ISU's Brandon Pounds the top collegian in Sea Ray relays
Indiana State senior Brandon Pounds was the top collegian in the men’s hammer throw and fellow senior Felisha Johnson opened up the Sycamores’ three-day competition at the University of Tennessee’s Sea Ray relays with a second-place finish in the women’s hammer throw.
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Stealing records: ISU softball’s offense gaining momentum
The Indiana State softball offense is no juggernaut, but the fog may be clearing on a program that has had a long history of struggles with few signs of consistent winning.
Explosive, dedicated athletes like Morgan Allee and Megan Stone are two reasons to believe this group of Sycamores can spark a turnaround.
The Sycamores are scoring an average of 3.1 runs per game while also ranking in the middle of the Missouri Valley Conference pack in hits and batting average. But the Sycamores are on pace to break the school record for on-base percentage as they lead the MVC in walks, hit-by-pitches, sacrifice bunts and stolen bases.
Allee, with 17 regular-season games to go, broke the school record for stolen bases in a season Tuesday against IUPUI and is among the 10 best in the NCAA. Her total of 30 makes up almost half of ISU’s 74.
“I’m so big [that] they think I won’t go. It works out well,” the stocky shortstop said. -
ISU’s QB battle
Quarterback battles come in all shapes and sizes, but one could forgive Indiana State’s Mike Perish, Robert Tonyan Jr. and Trent Lancaster if they feel a bit more beleaguered than your average signal-caller.
Not only is the trio fighting for the right to be named ISU’s starter by the Sycamores’ football opener Aug. 29 at Indiana University, but all three also are trying to learn a new offense, they’re acclimating themselves to new coach Mike Sanford’s different way of running things, and they’re trying to maintain harmony amongst each other, so whoever the ultimate winner is can effectively lead the team without angst.
All of it is playing out during ISU’s spring practice, and so far, none of the quarterback candidates have separated themselves from the pack. -
Sycamores wrap up season sweep of Purdue in baseball
Jordan Pearson went 3-for-4 with a pair of doubles and all nine position starters for the Indiana State baseball team recorded at least one hit, leading the Sycamores to a 10-5 victory and a season sweep of Purdue in front of 679 fans Tuesday at Bob Warn Field.
ISU claimed its second consecutive game and improved to 14-13 overall, while Purdue dropped to 11-19. The Sycamores are 4-1 against the Big Ten Conference this season after sweeping their two-game series with the Boilermakers and winning two out of three at Minnesota in mid-March.
ISU and Purdue combined for nine runs over the first three innings as the Sycamores took a 5-4 lead. Pearson (single), Mike Fitzgerald (single), Tyler Wampler (one-run single), Landon Curry (single) and Cody Zimmerman (two-run single) tallied five consecutive hits with one out in the bottom of the second inning as ISU scored four runs in the frame. -
Metro roundup: ISU’s Allee breaks steals record in twinbill split
Junior Morgan Allee broke the ISU single-season stolen bases record as the Indiana State softball team split a doubleheader with the Jaguars of IUPUI Tuesday at Price Field.
ISU defeated IUPUI 7-0 in the opener and fell 17-6 in the nightcap.
“It's nice to be able to get records but it's really not that important to me,” Allee said about breaking the record. “I would rather us win every game than for me to personally break any records.”
Allee led off the bottom of the first inning of the first game with a walk and promptly stole second base to break the ISU single-season record. - More Indiana State University Headlines
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