Southern Illinois University
12-2, 2-0MVC
Illinois St.
4-9, 0-2MVC
Men's Basketball Runs Past Illinois State, 79-58
01/05/2002 | 12:00:00 | Men's Basketball
Jan. 5, 2002
CARBONDALE, Ill. - Southern Illinois rolled to its biggest win over a Missouri Valley Conference team in two years as it beat Illinois State, 79-58, Saturday at SIU Arena.
The 21-point margin was the biggest since the Salukis beat Drake by 28 on January 26, 2000. SIU won its fourth straight game and improved to 12-2 on the season and 2-0 in conference play,
Four players scored in double figures for Southern, led by Jermaine Dearman's 16 points. Freshman guard Stetson Hairston had the best game of his career with 15 points and 11 rebounds.
Illinois State (4-9, 0-2) led the game, however, until midway through the first half.
"They went with their quicker lineup and got after us, and we kind of sat around early," Saluki head coach Bruce Weber said. "Then we settled down and started moving the basketball."
Trailing 15-14, SIU went on a 14-4 run that featured a 3-pointer and a break-away dunk by Hairston.
The Salukis extended their lead to 12 points at halftime, as Dearman made a jumper and a two-handed dunk on back-to-back possessions before the break to take a 43-31 lead.
In the second half, SIU blitzed the Redbirds with a 29-9 run to open half and led 72-40 with 8:34 remaining.
"They were quick, confident and strong, cutting hard," observed Illinois State head coach Tom Richardson. "And they have the big guy (Rolan Roberts) on the inside now that can block shots and mop up. We missed three or four right at the goal, and maybe they were thinking about him (Rolan). I think that has helped their defense and they are playing with a lot of confidence.''
Weber said he was pleased with defense as a whole, which forced a season-high 24 turnovers, and especially with the play of Hairston.
"Stetson's energy in the first half really gave us a boost," he said. "This was by far his best game. It was offense, defense and rebounds. He gave us energy. Stetson's been the surprise this year.''
Weber substituted liberally down the stretch to keep his team fresh for Monday's game against Southwest Missouri State.
"If Southwest wins tonight, they will be undefeated in conference," Weber said. " I think they have as much talent as anybody in the league. Their inside combo is really playing well and will probably be the best duo we see in the Valley."
Quoting Coach Weber: "We have to try to win all or home games, which Creighton did last year to win the league. It's a huge game for us early and hopefully the crowd will be great again.''
"Illinois State came out with a lot of energy. I read what their coach said in the paper, that they needed a big win like this, a jump start. We felt that we could dominate the boards and those early offensive boards were big. They turned it over too many times and our defense was good and got us in transition. I thought the key bucket at the end of the half was Stetson's dunk off the steal, then we came out at the first five minutes of the second half and extended. It was good to see that we were able to stretch it out this time and finish the game. We were able to rest some of the guys for Monday.
"We have a lot of people who can do a lot of things. I thought the headline in the paper the other day was great 'all for one'.
Tom Richardson: "They were much more agressive (defensively), they played harder than last year. That is something I told our team, that they played hard on defense like we did last year."
