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After last night's stirring 89-86 victory over Utah, USF now turns its focus to tonight's Diamond Head Classic semifinal match-up against Illinois State. The game tips off at 5:00 p.m. HT / 7:00 PT and will be televised by ESPN2 with Roxy Bernstein and Dino Gaudio on the call from courtside.
 
Here are five things to know about tonight's USF-Illinois State semifinal matchup at the Diamond Head Classic.
 
Series History
There's not a lot of history between USF and Illinois State. The teams have met just twice previously, the last time on Nov. 30, 2013 when the Redbirds scored a 90-76 victory in San Francisco as part of the Golden Gate Challenge Illinois State also came away with a 68-52 victory over USF at the Cowboy Shootout in Casper, Wyo. On Dec. 27, 1985.
 
Lights Out
Where last night's shooting performance against Utah stacks up against other hot-shooting nights in school history is open for discussion. Certainly the Dons have shot for a higher percentage from the field than last night's 52.7 final mark. But when you consider the 16 three-pointers accounted for more than half of the Dons total field goals (31) and the night takes on historical ramifications. With last night's performance, the Dons now rank fourth nationally in both three-point field goal percentage (43.3) and three-pointers made per game (11.5). Freshman Remu Raitanen accounted for four of the Dons 16 three-pointers in scoring a career high 12 points. Interesting side note - Raitanen's club coach in Finland was Hanno Mottola, who was a starter Utah's 1998 Final Four team.
 
The Dons Bench
The Dons bench has combined to score 110 points in the last two games against Abilene Christian (58) and Utah (52) and is averaging 35.1 points per game this season. Since being outscored 28-21 in the season-opener against Illinois-Chicago, Dons' reserves have outscored the opponents, 365-227. The numbers received a recent boost with leading scorer Ronnie Boyce now coming off the bench the last two games.
 
Overheard
Freshman Chance Anderson made the most out of his three minutes of playing time against Utah, completing a three-point play that gave the Dons a 49-38 lead early in the second half. Understandably, there were plenty of smiles in the Dons locker room after last night's game as Kyle Smith left no one out in handing out his post-game plaudits. Smith turned to Anderson, who was sitting stoically on his stool, taking it all in. "Chance, it's alright to smile - you just played the best three minutes of your career," said Smith. Anderson's response, "I'm saving my smiles for Sunday after we win the tournament."
 
About Illinois State
The Redbirds are now 7-3 overall after posting a convincing, 71-45 victory over Hawaii last night. One of the strongest teams in the Missouri Valley Conference, the Redbirds were picked to finish second in the MVC race behind Wichita State. Illinois State was the only team to feature two players on the Preseason All-MVC First Team in Paris Lee and Mikyle McIntosh. Deontae Hawkins leads four Redbirds scoring in double figures with a 15.3 ppg mark while Paris is averaging 14.9 a game. Dan Muller's team returns four out of five starters and seven of 11 letterwinners off last year's team that tied for second in the MVC with a 12-6 record. The Redbirds got a boost last night with the return of Daouda "David" Ndiaye, who made his season debut after missing most of the non-conference season with a stress fracture in his right foot. Illinois State is holding teams to 65.8 points a game this season.
 
Up Next
USF will play San Diego State or Tulsa on Christmas Day at either in the championship game at 3:00 p.m. HT or in the third-place game at 1:00 p.m.