Redbirds’s Season Slipping as They Lose 4th Consecutive Game

NORMAL – “I would say that our locker room is more crushed now than at any other time this year.”

That quote from head coach Dan Muller sums up Saturday night’s loss pretty accurately. The frustration and dismay felt by the Redbirds was on full display during Saturday night’s 65-59 loss to their I-74 rival Bradley Braves, in front of a near-capacity Redbird Arena crowd.

The game looked early on as if it would be the igniting win needed by Dan Muller’s squad, who came into the game in the midst of a 3-game losing streak. Milik Yarbrough and Keyshawn Evans willed the Redbirds to early leads of 11-0, and 20-11, before Bradley’s shooting core caught fire.

By first half’s end, the Braves were 7-10 from beyond the arch, while the Redbirds almost doubled the Braves attempts, but only shot 23.5% from 3-point range – going 4-17.

Redbird Guard Milik Yarbrough was exited the game towards the end of the first half after awkwardly landing on his ankle while coming down from a shot. He would leave the court on his own power, returning for the second half.

The Braves went on an 8-0 scoring run to close out the first half, which culminated in an acrobatic, buzzer-beating 3-pointer by Nate Kennel, giving Bradley a 33-30 lead. The Braves would take the momentum into the locker room with them, knowing that a quiet and stunned Redbird Arena crowd would be there when they came back out.

With one of their leading scorers, Yarbrough, limited due to an ankle injury, the Redbirds were never able to recover. Stumbling out of the gate in the second half, the Redbirds continued to be stymied by Bradley’s ferocious defense.

“I certainly didn’t think that we had great confidence in the game once things started going bad, and we were just never able to recover from that,” said coach Muller after Saturday’s loss, which dropped the Redbirds down to 6th place in the Missouri Valley Conference with a conference record of 7-7. Teams now in front of ISU in the standings include SIU, Bradley, Missouri State, Drake, and Loyola Chicago.