Southern Illinois University
13-423-6/ MVC
Indiana St.
4-136-20/ MVC
Men's Basketball Downs Indiana State, 84-74
02/23/2002 | 12:00:00 | Men's Basketball
Feb. 23, 2002
Postgame Audio
TERRE HAUTE, Ind. - The powerful inside duo of Jermaine Dearman and Rolan Roberts led Southern Illinois to an 84-74 victory over Indiana State Saturday at the Hulman Center.
Hitting an impressive array of dunks and short jumpers, Dearman finished with 16 points and a career-high 18 rebounds, while Roberts led all scorers with 23 points, and added 10 rebounds and seven blocked shots.
"We thought one of the keys was going to be to dominate the inside, even though they have big guys," SIU head coach Bruce Weber said. "I think our guys would rather play against big guys like this, because we're more athletic."
The Salukis looked like they might blow the game out early in the second half, as they built a 16-point advantage, 50-34, with 16 minutes left in the game.
However, the Sycamores rallied back and eventually took the lead, 61-60, on a layup by Kelyn Block with 7:56 remaining. Indiana State led by three, 72-69, when SIU went on a 15-2 run to close out the game. Key buckets in the run included 3-pointers by Brad Korn and Stetson Hairston.
"I was pleased for Brad to step up and hit that shot, because we had our heads down," Weber said.
Kent Williams scored 15 points for the Salukis and moved into the school's top 10 in career scoring with 1,430 points. Hairston also had a big game for SIU with 11 points, nine rebounds and a career-high seven assists.
The Salukis (23-6, 13-4) still trail Creighton by one game in the Missouri Valley Conference standings because the Bluejays beat Bradley on Saturday. If SIU wins at home Monday against Bradley and Creighton loses at home to Drake, the Salukis will grab a share of the MVC regular season title as well as the top seed in the conference tournament, which begins next Friday.
"I told our guys yesterday that we can't worry about everyone else," Weber said. "We got ourselves in this bind, and we have to take care of business ourself."
SIU is guaranteed no worse than the number two seed in the tournament.
