Southern Illinois University
9-2
Southeast Missouri
1-8
Men's Basketball Tops SE Missouri State, 92-80
12/22/2001 | 12:00:00 | Men's Basketball
Dec. 22, 2001
CARBONDALE, Ill. - The powerful inside tandem of Rolan Roberts and Jermaine Dearman led Southern Illinois to a 92-80 victory over Southeast Missouri State Saturday in front of 7,520 fans at SIU Arena.
Both players recorded double-doubles. Roberts had a career-high 28 points and 18 rebounds, and Dearman pitched in with 16 points and 12 rebounds. Roberts dominated the low post, recording five dunks and six blocked shots.
"We were a scoring, dunking, rebounding machine today, but we sure didn't guard anybody," said Saluki head coach Bruce Weber. "We are bigger, stronger and more athletic inside, and we thought that was a key, that we should dominate inside.''
SEMO (1-8) jumped out an early 11-4 lead on the strength of a pair of 3-pointers by Kenny Johnson a field goal by Drew DeMond and a 3-pointer by Tim Scheer.
But Southern Illinois (9-2) answered with a 12-0 run that featured a pair of buckets by Brad Korn. The Indians rallied back and briefly led 20-18 at the 9:20 mark, but SIU outscored SEMO 21-7 the rest of the first half, took a 39-27 halftime lead and never trailed thereafter.
SIU opened the second half with a 22-9 run to build it's biggest lead of the game, 61-36, at the 14:42 mark. The run included a pair of dunks by Roberts and a spinning baseline jumper.
The Indians rallied to close the deficit to five, 74-69, with 4:43 remaining. Southern Illinois then used an 18-11 run to seal the victory.
"We just couldn't finish it once we got the big lead," Weber said. "I think we relaxed a few times on defense and I didn't sub enough."
Southern Illinois dominated the boards, holding a 52-27 rebounding advantage. SEMO stayed in the game by hitting 10-of-28 3-point shots, the most against the Salukis since Belmont made 10-of-28 in SIU's season opener.
The 7,520 in attendance was the second-largest home crowd of the season. It was especially surprising, Weber said, because the students are away on break.
"The crowd was great, tremendous," he said. "I was shocked really. I guess we got them excited, and I hope that we keep them excited, because we have a big home stretch once we get through these next two road games.''
The Salukis will play at Murray State next Saturday, followed by the conference opener at Evansville on Jan. 2. Then SIU will play three home games in an eight-day span in early January.
