Southern Illinois University
18-4, 8-2MVC
Evansville
4-15, 1-9MVC
Men's Basketball Pounds Evansville, 101-62
01/30/2002 | 12:00:00 | Men's Basketball
Jan. 30, 2002
CARBONDALE, Ill. - Southern Illinois made a season-high 12 3-pointers in a 101-62 rout of Evansville Wednesday night at SIU Arena. Six players scored in double figures for SIU, led by Kent Williams' 17 points.
It was the most lopsided win by the Salukis in the 92-game history of the series with Evansville, which began in 1927. The 39-point win was SIU's biggest margin of victory versus any opponent since beating Missouri Southern by 55 points on December 22, 1994.
Southern Illinois never trailed in the game and led by as many as 46 points.
"We just said, 'we've got to jump on them early'," SIU head coach Bruce Weber said. "I think our kids came out with a little bit of an edge because of the way that we played at Northern Iowa, and we got after them defensively right away. Then we got in transition and, obviously, we shot the ball pretty well. They decided to post up and we moved it out and hit some wide open threes."
The Salukis bolted to a 30-11 lead in the first 10 minutes of the game, and by halftime had doubled the score on Evansville, 56-28. SIU shot a blistering 66.7 percent from the field in the first half.
"(Evansville is) hurting," Weber said. "They are in last place. They've had injuries, and then the distraction with what is happening with their program."
SIU picked up where it left off in the second half with a 20-4 run that featured dunks by Rolan Roberts, Jermaine Dearman and Sylvester Willis.
"Coach wanted us to work on our motion offense," Dearman said. "At Northern Iowa, we did too much one-on-one stuff. Tonight, Coach Weber didn't call a play the whole game. We just ran motion and did it with a lot of energy."
The Salukis had a season-high 25 assists in the game, including seven apiece by Marcus Belcher and Darren Brooks.
The Salukis (18-4, 8-2) broke the century mark in scoring for the first time since beating Long Beach State, 101-89, on Nov. 21, 2000.
The Purple Aces (4-15, 1-9) were held to 34 percent shooting from the field.
