To start off the second day of the Missouri Valley Conference (MVC) Tournament, first seed Illinois State University (ISU) took on the eighth seed University of Evansville in the first quarterfinal matchup. Despite the Purple Aces’ best efforts, the Redbirds came out on top 80-69 to advance to the semifinals.
For the first 10 minutes of the game, Evansville had the lead and looked like it was going to make Illinois St. work to win the game. But, ISU took its first lead with 8:35 remaining before the break and never looked back. The Redbird defense swatted away a MVC tournament record 14 shots, breaking Wichita State University’s record of 11 set, appropriately, against Evansville.