Walker and Illinois State knock off Belmont 81-78

Jan 30, 2026, 12:33 pm

NORMAL, Ill. -- — Chase Walker scored 22 points and Johnny Kinziger secured the victory with a 3-pointer with 17 seconds remaining as Illinois State knocked off Belmont 81-78 on Wednesday night.

Walker added six rebounds for the Redbirds (13-9, 5-6 Missouri Valley Conference). Kinziger shot 8 for 15, including 5 for 11 from beyond the arc to add 22 points. Landon Wolf had 11 points and shot 5 for 11, including 1 for 6 from beyond the arc.

Jonathan Pierre led the Bruins (15-7, 7-4) in scoring, finishing with 27 points. Sam Orme added 20 points for Belmont. Isaiah Walker also had 10 points and nine rebounds.

Illinois State went into halftime leading Belmont 35-31. Kinziger scored 12 points in the half. Chase Walker scored a team-high 13 points for Illinois State in the second half.

Illinois State plays Valparaiso at home on Saturday, and Belmont hosts Evansville on Sunday.

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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.