Illinois St. 62, Montana St. 56

John Wilkins scored 16 points and Illinois State defeated Montana State 62-56 on Saturday night.

Austin Hill scored 15 and Anthony Cousin 14 for the Redbirds (6-2), who bounced back from an 82-51 home loss to No. 24 UNLV on Wednesday night.

Montana State (5-4) led for nearly the entire first half, and held a 32-29 advantage at the break. But Illinois State held the Bobcats to five points from the 8:20 mark of the second half until 25 seconds remained in the game. Hill's layup with 4:52 to play put the Redbirds ahead for good at 48-46, and Illinois State later scored 10 straight points to put the game out of reach.

Danny Piepoli led Montana State with 10 points, including three free throws with 2 seconds remaining.