NORMAL — The circus was in town Tuesday at CEFCU Arena, and long before Illinois State’s Gamma Phi Circus staged an impressive halftime performance.
Thousands of elementary school children and their teachers rendered the atmosphere both deafening and joyous as ISU cast aside Division II Missouri-St. Louis 66-51 before a program-record home crowd of 6,363.
The bouncing, dancing, screaming and singing youngsters witnessed the Redbirds improve to 6-2.
“That was the storyline, the highlight for today,” ISU coach Kristen Gillespie said. “I can’t thank our marketing staff, Danny Bugg and Lauren Henderson, enough for making this happen. It’s something they’ve been working on since this summer and it was special.”
The Redbirds have had Education Days in the past, but this was by far the most well attended.
“I can’t thank our community enough for supporting us,” said Gillespie. “I told our players I don’t know if we’ll have another opportunity to play in front of this many people unless it’s March. And at least they’re cheering for us, not like at Iowa when they were cheering against us.”
ISU players fanned out after the game to acknowledge the patrons as they were departing.
“It’s awesome having your community come and support you,” junior guard Maya Wong said. “Interacting with them afterward just made my entire day. I know these kids had a lot of fun. I’m happy we could spend some time with them because we appreciate all their support.”
Assuming control
UMSL took its one and only lead at 7-5 when Jalysa Stokes banked in a 3-pointer from the wing.
ISU led 23-15 when Paige Robinson connected on two free throws with two seconds left in the opening quarter.
The Redbird margin stood at 41-27 entering halftime as Robinson rebounded her own miss, scored, was fouled and completed the three-point play again at the two-second mark.
ISU held a 60-40 advantage late in the third quarter after a Robinson 3-pointer, but Gillespie was not pleased with her team’s overall effort.
“That’s not our standard. For the second game in a row, we were missing a little something,” she said. “That’s on me, and I’ve got to figure it out. We’ve got a tall task at hand Sunday at Purdue, and what we’ve seen the last two games isn’t going to cut it.”
Attention to detail was lacking, according to the ISU coach.
“Defense mostly,” said Gillespie. “I thought we weren’t very attentive to the scout (report). We wanted to guard certain things certain ways. I know it was extremely loud, and I’m taking that into consideration. We need to take this real serious and be laser focused. We’re not quite there.”
Supporting cast
Robinson topped ISU with 20 points, while DeAnna Wilson and Wong added 12 each.
“It’s really important for us,” Gillespie said of scoring from outside the team’s top three of Robinson, Wilson and Mary Crompton, “especially when we get into league play and scouting becomes really prevalent. The great thing is they are very capable scorers.”
Forward Kate Bullman scored the game’s first points on a 3-pointer from the key. Bullman was 1 of 17 from beyond the arc entering the contest.
“I’m trying not to think about it too much because I know I’m a good 3-point shooter, and they’re going to fall eventually,” said Bullman, who finished with seven points, a game-high nine rebounds and two blocks.
“All my teammates and especially the coaches have all the faith in the world in me they are going to start falling. I need to start having more confidence in myself that every shot I take is going to go in.”
Van Zeeland sees action
Sophomore forward Chloe Van Zeeland played for the first time all season and grabbed four rebounds.
“She got cleared this week,” Gillespie said. “We knew it would just be some spot minutes. She hasn’t done anything in almost two months with her broken finger.”
Numbers game
Both teams shot 37.5 percent from the field as ISU sank 24 of 64 and the Tritons 21 of 56.
Wilson pulled down eight rebounds as the Redbirds won the battle of the boards 44-33.
Gillespie was happy with a season-low seven turnovers.
"The last two games we haven't been great taking care of the ball," she said. "This is getting back to where we need to be."
PHOTOS: Illinois State coach Kristen Gillespie
Contact Randy Reinhardt at (309) 820-3403. Follow him on Twitter: @Pg_Reinhardt