Saturday, November 20
Normal, Ill.
7 p.m. ET
Bucknell University
1-3,0-0Patriot
100
at
105
Illinois State
2-2,0-0MVC
1
2
OT 1
F
Bucknell
42
46
12
100
Illinois St.
39
49
17
105
Photo by: Jon Lambert
Men’s Basketball Drops Wild One at Illinois State, 105-100 in OT, Despite Funk’s 38
11/20/2021 9:54:00 PM | Men's Basketball
NORMAL, Ill. – Senior Andrew Funk dropped a career-high 38 points, but Illinois State outlasted Bucknell 105-100 in overtime on Saturday night in a campus-site game as part of the Cancun Classic.
Freshman guard Elvin Edmonds IV tallied a career-high 18 points, including a put-back at the final buzzer of regulation that forced overtime. Andre Screen added 11 points, and Jake van der Heijden and Alex Timmerman had 10 each as five Bison scored in double figures. Timmerman, an Illinois native playing in front of a large collection of family and friends, also had nine rebounds and three assists while playing important minutes down the stretch after Screen fouled out.
Mark Freeman paced Illinois State (2-2) with 34 points, followed by Sy Chatman with 23 and 11 rebounds. Bucknell held NCAA scoring leader Antonio Reeves (26.7 ppg coming in) to 12 on 3-for-16 shooting, but the Bison could not overcome 18 turnovers that led to the Redbirds' 26-6 edge in points off turnovers.
It was a closely contested affair throughout, with 12 ties and 22 lead changes over 45 minutes of action. Both teams let leads slip out of their grasps in the latter stages of regulation. A 3-pointer by Reeves with 6:25 to play gave Illinois State its largest lead of seven points at 71-64, but Funk shot the Bison right back in the game.
Bucknell's lone senior scored 18 points in just over six minutes, and his back-to-back 3-pointers brought the Bison within 73-72. After two free throws by Chatman, Funk hit another trey off a feed from Edmonds to knot the game at 75-all with 3:23 to go.
After Chatman made two more at the line, van der Heijden hit his biggest shot of the night, a right-wing three that gave Bucknell a 78-77 lead. Freeman answered with two free throws, and then Funk, piping hot at this point, curled off a screen to the top of the key and swished his seventh 3-pointer of the night, this one coming while getting knocked to the deck. He finished the 4-point play for an 82-79 lead with 1:22 left.
After the Redbirds missed two free throws, Xander Rice slashed down the lane for a layup to make it 84-79 with 46 seconds on the clock. Edmonds then came up with a steal and was fouled, but his front end of a one-and-one rimmed out, his only miss in a 10-for-11 night at the line.
Illinois State made 3 of 4 free throws to crawl within 84-82, but then Edmonds made a pair of charity tosses for a four-point lead with 30 seconds left. At the other end, Josiah Strong swished a 3-pointer from way out on the left wing, and then a turnover in the backcourt led to a Kendall Lewis dunk, and suddenly the Redbirds had the lead back at 87-86 with 17 seconds to go.
Rice couldn't get a contested layup to go, but Lewis only managed 1 of 2 at the line, leaving it a two-point game with six seconds to go. Funk heaved a deep three near the right sideline, it was off the mark, but Edmonds snuck in on the weak side to scoop the rebound and lay it in just before the buzzer.
Bucknell led once in the extra session after two free throws by Edmonds on the first possession. It was tied at 94-all on a Funk layup that drew a goaltending call.
Reeves struggled for most of the night, but he hit a big pull-up jumper, followed by a Lewis put-back that made it 99-94 with 1:30 left. The Bison were chasing the game from there. They did make it a one-possession game on a couple of occasions, but Illinois State made their final six free throws.
"We are certainly disappointed in the result, but I'm not at all disappointed in the effort our guys showed from start to finish," said head coach Nathan Davis. "We had guys step up and make big plays, and no one got down when they made a few runs. The turnovers really hurt us, especially the live-ball turnovers that led to layups and dunks, and that is something that we need to get cleaned up. We don't have any easy games on our schedule, but we have plenty to build on."
Neither team led by more than five in a tightly contested, fast-paced first half. A 3-pointer by Edmonds, followed by a layup from local favorite Timmerman gave the Bison a 17-12 lead.
Illinois State answered with an 8-0 run to move back in front, but six straight points from Screen kept the Bison within arm's reach.
Freshman Josh Bascoe scored his first career points on a fastbreak layup, and then just over a minute later consecutive threes by Bascoe and Funk forced a Redbirds timeout with the Bison up 33-31.
Bucknell finished the half with a 6-0 run – all at the foul line – to take a 42-39 lead at the break.
The Bison shot 43.1 percent on the night, including a 12-for-27 showing from downtown. They were terrific from the foul line, hitting 26 of 29. Bucknell had 21 assists on 31 made field goals and outrebounded a big Redbirds team 42-41.
Illinois state finished at 43.7 percent from the field, 8-for-25 from the arc and 35-for-45 from the free-throw line.
Funk went 12-for-25 from the field, 7-for-16 from the 3-point arc and 7-for-7 from the foul line on the way to his 38 points, which surpassed his previous high of 32 set just last week against Penn. The 38 points also tied the Cancun Challenge single-game record previously set by Norris Cole of Cleveland State in 2009.
Funk's output was the 11th-highest in modern Bucknel history and the most points since Zach Thomas scored 38 in a win at Stony Brook in 2017-18.
This was Bucknell's first game in which both teams scored at least 100 points since a 110-108 double-overtime win over Colgate on Feb. 2, 1994.
The Bison will head down to Cancun on Sunday to prepare for two games in the Mayan Division of the Cancun Challenge. Bucknell will play Mercer on Tuesday at 3 p.m. ET and either Middle Tennessee or Rider on Wednesday at 12:30 or 3 p.m. ET. Both games in Cancun will be streamed on FloHoops.
Gallery: (11-20-2021) Men's Basketball vs. Illinois State
Freshman guard Elvin Edmonds IV tallied a career-high 18 points, including a put-back at the final buzzer of regulation that forced overtime. Andre Screen added 11 points, and Jake van der Heijden and Alex Timmerman had 10 each as five Bison scored in double figures. Timmerman, an Illinois native playing in front of a large collection of family and friends, also had nine rebounds and three assists while playing important minutes down the stretch after Screen fouled out.
Mark Freeman paced Illinois State (2-2) with 34 points, followed by Sy Chatman with 23 and 11 rebounds. Bucknell held NCAA scoring leader Antonio Reeves (26.7 ppg coming in) to 12 on 3-for-16 shooting, but the Bison could not overcome 18 turnovers that led to the Redbirds' 26-6 edge in points off turnovers.
It was a closely contested affair throughout, with 12 ties and 22 lead changes over 45 minutes of action. Both teams let leads slip out of their grasps in the latter stages of regulation. A 3-pointer by Reeves with 6:25 to play gave Illinois State its largest lead of seven points at 71-64, but Funk shot the Bison right back in the game.
Bucknell's lone senior scored 18 points in just over six minutes, and his back-to-back 3-pointers brought the Bison within 73-72. After two free throws by Chatman, Funk hit another trey off a feed from Edmonds to knot the game at 75-all with 3:23 to go.
After Chatman made two more at the line, van der Heijden hit his biggest shot of the night, a right-wing three that gave Bucknell a 78-77 lead. Freeman answered with two free throws, and then Funk, piping hot at this point, curled off a screen to the top of the key and swished his seventh 3-pointer of the night, this one coming while getting knocked to the deck. He finished the 4-point play for an 82-79 lead with 1:22 left.
After the Redbirds missed two free throws, Xander Rice slashed down the lane for a layup to make it 84-79 with 46 seconds on the clock. Edmonds then came up with a steal and was fouled, but his front end of a one-and-one rimmed out, his only miss in a 10-for-11 night at the line.
Illinois State made 3 of 4 free throws to crawl within 84-82, but then Edmonds made a pair of charity tosses for a four-point lead with 30 seconds left. At the other end, Josiah Strong swished a 3-pointer from way out on the left wing, and then a turnover in the backcourt led to a Kendall Lewis dunk, and suddenly the Redbirds had the lead back at 87-86 with 17 seconds to go.
Rice couldn't get a contested layup to go, but Lewis only managed 1 of 2 at the line, leaving it a two-point game with six seconds to go. Funk heaved a deep three near the right sideline, it was off the mark, but Edmonds snuck in on the weak side to scoop the rebound and lay it in just before the buzzer.
Bucknell led once in the extra session after two free throws by Edmonds on the first possession. It was tied at 94-all on a Funk layup that drew a goaltending call.
Reeves struggled for most of the night, but he hit a big pull-up jumper, followed by a Lewis put-back that made it 99-94 with 1:30 left. The Bison were chasing the game from there. They did make it a one-possession game on a couple of occasions, but Illinois State made their final six free throws.
"We are certainly disappointed in the result, but I'm not at all disappointed in the effort our guys showed from start to finish," said head coach Nathan Davis. "We had guys step up and make big plays, and no one got down when they made a few runs. The turnovers really hurt us, especially the live-ball turnovers that led to layups and dunks, and that is something that we need to get cleaned up. We don't have any easy games on our schedule, but we have plenty to build on."
Neither team led by more than five in a tightly contested, fast-paced first half. A 3-pointer by Edmonds, followed by a layup from local favorite Timmerman gave the Bison a 17-12 lead.
Illinois State answered with an 8-0 run to move back in front, but six straight points from Screen kept the Bison within arm's reach.
Freshman Josh Bascoe scored his first career points on a fastbreak layup, and then just over a minute later consecutive threes by Bascoe and Funk forced a Redbirds timeout with the Bison up 33-31.
Bucknell finished the half with a 6-0 run – all at the foul line – to take a 42-39 lead at the break.
The Bison shot 43.1 percent on the night, including a 12-for-27 showing from downtown. They were terrific from the foul line, hitting 26 of 29. Bucknell had 21 assists on 31 made field goals and outrebounded a big Redbirds team 42-41.
Illinois state finished at 43.7 percent from the field, 8-for-25 from the arc and 35-for-45 from the free-throw line.
Funk went 12-for-25 from the field, 7-for-16 from the 3-point arc and 7-for-7 from the foul line on the way to his 38 points, which surpassed his previous high of 32 set just last week against Penn. The 38 points also tied the Cancun Challenge single-game record previously set by Norris Cole of Cleveland State in 2009.
Funk's output was the 11th-highest in modern Bucknel history and the most points since Zach Thomas scored 38 in a win at Stony Brook in 2017-18.
This was Bucknell's first game in which both teams scored at least 100 points since a 110-108 double-overtime win over Colgate on Feb. 2, 1994.
The Bison will head down to Cancun on Sunday to prepare for two games in the Mayan Division of the Cancun Challenge. Bucknell will play Mercer on Tuesday at 3 p.m. ET and either Middle Tennessee or Rider on Wednesday at 12:30 or 3 p.m. ET. Both games in Cancun will be streamed on FloHoops.
Team Stats
Buck
ISU
FG%
.431
.437
3FG%
.444
.320
FT%
.897
.778
RB
42
41
TO
18
11
STL
5
11
Game Leaders
Scoring
Pts
38
FGM
12
3FGM
7
FTM
7
Pts
18
FGM
3
3FGM
2
FTM
10
Pts
11
FGM
4
3FGM
0
FTM
3
Pts
10
FGM
3
3FGM
2
FTM
2
Players Mentioned
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