By Mark Bennett
As the Indiana State Sycamores jogged back
to the bench for Coach Royce Waltman's second timeout in the
game's first two minutes, they heard him holler, "We're
not going to put up with this any more."
Six days earlier, they played flat in a 57-51
exhibition loss to NCAA Division II opponent Indianapolis. And
Waltman didn't want a repeat in Friday's final exhibition against
Pella Windows in Hulman Center.
That second timeout lecture apparently worked.
The Sycamores beat Pella, a team of former college basketball
players, soundly, 85-68.
Moments after Waltman called for a second
timeout with 18 minutes, 37 seconds left in the first half, senior
forward Djibril Kante hustled to break up a Pella pass. Then
another senior, center Terence Avery, hit a baseline jumpshot.
By game's end, all three ISU seniors - Kante,
Avery and Kelyn Block - posted double-figure scoring totals.
Avery had a double-double, with 13 points and 10 rebounds. Kante
had 12 points, seven rebounds and two blocked shots while playing
just 20 minutes because of foul trouble. And Block awoke from
a scoreless first half to finish with a team-high 15 points.
They weren't alone.
Junior guard Matt Broermann added 13 points
and freshmen Lamar Grimes and Jake Sams added 11 each.
This time, Waltman was impressed after those
first two minutes, that is.
"I thought for sure after that exhibition
last week that we would come out ready to go with a lot of life,
and we didn't," Waltman said. "And, gee whiz, when
Kelyn and Djibril began to play actively and aggressively, then
the freshmen realized that's how you're supposed to do it."
Grimes' night was somewhat of a relief. Earlier
Friday, sophomore point guard Barry Welsh made final his decision
to transfer from ISU to a yet undecided school. That left as
the only true point guards, Grimes and walk-on junior-college
transfer Batiste Haywood.
Haywood started Friday, getting four points,
five rebounds, three assists and one steal in 12 minutes on the
court, while committing one turnover. In 29 minutes off the bench,
the 5-foot-11 Grimes handed out six assists, stole the ball twice
and turned it over twice.
On one exchange, Grimes hit a 3-pointer to
give ISU a 50-45 lead with 15:48 left to play and then stole
the ball from Terry Cress on Pella's next possession.
Grimes, Haywood, Block and the rest of the
ISU guards also passed the ball inside to Avery and Kante more
often. That was the plan.
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| Tribune-Star/Bob
Poynter |
| To the hoop: Indiana State's
Kelyn Block (center) takes the ball to the hoop between two Pella
Windows defenders Friday night in Hulman Center. |
"We look to go down there more this year,"
Grimes said, "because we're pretty good down low."
Avery hit six of 14 field-goal attempts.
"I was disappointed I didn't finish [shots]
a little better," the 6-9, 240-pounder said. Still, he and
the team shot better than in the Indianapolis game when the Sycamores
hit a dismal 25 percent from the field. On Friday, they hit 45
percent.
Their confidence seemed stronger. Broermann,
for example, put ISU ahead for good at 25-22 with a 3-pointer.
On his previous 3-point attempt, Broermann shot an airball. The
backcourt's decision to attempt passes inside helped, Broermann
said, often creating open shots for guards on passes back outside.
"They got a lot of open shots for guys
like me and [sophomore] Matt Berry," Broermann said.
Pella was held to 38-percent shooting, and
only two members - guards Ryan Sears and Cedrick McCullough -
hit at least half of their shots. Sears, who scored 15 points,
was a familiar face to Hulman Center fans, having spent the four
previous seasons as the point guard for Missouri Valley Conference
foe Creighton.
His former archrivals left Sears impressed.
"They're pretty solid," Sears said
of the Sycamores. "It's just going to take them some time
to find their personality."
ISU has eight more days to do so. They play
their first real game Nov. 18 at Illinois-Chicago. Waltman saw
improvement Friday from the first exhibition. More is needed.
"We have a ways to go, to play possession
by possession," he said. "The last couple years, what
has been good about our team is we almost never have a loose
possession. Almost every possession on both ends of the floor,
we were locked in. And to win with our schedule, we've got to
get there [again], and we're not there."
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