Illinois State University has the momentum to carry itself into the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament, according to the head of Redbirds women’s basketball.
Kristen Gillespie spoke the day after ISU’s Redbirds secured a narrow victory over Bradley University in a dramatic race against the clock. Guard Jaeden Pratt’s last-second free throw resulted in the team’s 66-65 win.
Before the throw, Gillespie had a simple message for the team huddle.
“I was just so proud, because we’ve struggled with 'the hard'. In the games that we’ve lost, we haven’t embraced 'the hard' very well, and it got hard for us in the last three minutes,” she said.
“’You‘ve put yourself in this position to win this game,’" Gillespie told the team, "and then I let Jae go and do her thing. And then she missed and then I just called her over. …I said, ‘Jae, you’re made for this,’ and she just nodded. And those are the biggest free throws of her young career.”
Gillespie said despite the added entertainment value in the game, the Redbirds proved their mettle in the face of a hard game.
“For our team to battle and come back down seven in the final three minutes, just a great way to start off our week,” Gillespie said. “It was a much-needed win for us and a much-needed road win that our team kind of proved themselves. We’re really good at home, but can we go on the road in a tough environment. …We proved that yesterday.”
The win earned the Redbirds the No. 3 seed in the postseason tournament.
Battle tested
Slowly but surely, the identity of the team took hold over the season, including that of the players themselves. Gillespie said over the course of the season the team has become battle tested.
“That was the tough thing early on. Addison [Martin] was the only one that had been in those big moments for us… [the team’s] role was so different last year,” she said. “We had Maya Wong, we had Elyce [Knudsen]…they just got to come in and do their little thing and then come out.”
With a new set of incoming freshmen, which Gillespie said has been outstanding, the team took until later in the season to understand who they share the ball with and build trust.
“We’re a multi-headed monster, if you will. I think defensively, we keep getting better and better, which is really important, because we weren’t very good last year,” she said. “We’re just a team that is having fun and I think people kind of forget about us; they count us out.”
At the same time, newer players were still able to take after those leaving. Guard Trista Fayta is only a sophomore, but Gillespie said she already knew last year she was gaining mentorship from playing with the graduating Maya Wong.
“Her and Maya were really tight,” said Gillespie. “Maya did a great job of taking Trista under her wing. And Trista could have looked at it as, ‘OK, not taking it so serious,’ but she tried to learn in every situation.”
Still, practice makes perfect. Gillespie said Fayta turned over the ball and struggled in particular games, but that’s how she learned.
“She had a great self-awareness to her, and she still does to this day. She has just worked for this moment. It is not by chance; she has been in the gym every single day preparing for this,” she said. “She’s a winner through and through and she doesn’t shy away from big moments.”
Doneelah Washington, also a sophomore, plays forward. She joins Fayta and the other sophomores and freshmen that make up a majority of the scorers this season.
“She got thrust into the spotlight and she has handled it so well, but [that's] another player that I think her best basketball—she’s just starting to scratch the surface of what she can do,” Gillespie said. “She’s really worked hard on her outside shot, on being more consistent defensively.”
The Redbird women will compete against Drake in the quarterfinals of the 2026 Missouri Valley Conference Women's Basketball Tournament Friday. The game takes place at 8:30 p.m. March 13 at Xtream Arena in Coralville, Iowa.
