Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Southern Illinois University
28-7
Georgia
22-10
| Team | 1 | 2 | F |
|---|---|---|---|
| Southern Illinois | 35 | 42 | 77 |
| Georgia | 38 | 37 | 75 |
Salukis Defeat Georgia, 77-75, To Advance To Sweet Sixteen
03/17/2002 | 12:00:00 | Men's Basketball
March 17, 2002
CHICAGO - Southern Illinois staged a dramatic 19-point comeback to upset #21 Georgia Sunday night, 77-75, and advance to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament.
The #11-seed Salukis (28-7) will play #2-seed Connecticut on Friday at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse, N.Y.
"I couldn't be prouder of our kids," SIU head coach Bruce Weber said. "To get down 19 points and not hang our heads. A couple of timeouts we called, I saw in their eyes, they were kind of deer in headlights. I just said, `Hey, we worked so hard, why would you quit now? We've just got to compete.'"
And compete they did. Trailing 30-11 with 8:29 left in the first half, the Dawgs scored on 20 of their next 25 possessions, closing the gap to 38-35 at halftime and eventually tying the game 41-41 on a Jermaine Dearman layup with 17:47 left in the game.
Dearman scored a career-high 25 points to lead the Salukis.
The Salukis never trailed thereafter, and led by as many as eight points,60-52, on a jumper by Darren Brooks with 11:33 remaining. Brooks finished with 16 points and made 3-of-4 3-point attempts.
The Salukis never panicked. They knew there was still plenty of basketball yet to play. And after rallying Sunday to stun third-seeded Georgia 77-75 in the East Regional, there's even more.
"We just stayed confident. Coach just kept telling us he believed in us. We believe in our system," Southern guard Kent Williams said.
"They were just bullying us earlier in the game, throwing us around and getting shots they wanted and we took that away from them. We knew that wasn't it. We felt we could cut the lead and make something happen."
Dearman played a huge role in Southern's biggest comeback of the season, one that sends the 11th-seeded Salukis to the round of 16 for the first time since the tournament was expanded to 64 teams in 1985.
"Our new goal now is to beat UConn," Dearman said.
"We set team goals all year. We said we wanted to make the NCAA tournament, we wanted to win our conference and we wanted to go to the Sweet 16. We've reached all our previous team goals."
With chants of "S-I-U! S-I-U!" reverberating through the United Center, SIU was able to escape a 30-11 hole with 8:29 left in the first half.
"They were the aggressor early. We became the aggressor, and then Jermaine got us back into to it," Weber said.
"I think when they got up 19, it maybe took a toll on their mind. They probably relaxed a little bit and all of a sudden, `Boom!' we're back in the game."
SIU has a total of three victories in the tournament. An upset of No. 6 Texas Tech in the first round Friday was the Salukis' first NCAA victory since they won once in 1977.
Ten years before that, Walt Frazier - who would go on to NBA stardom with the New York Knicks - led the Salukis to the 1967 NIT title.
Sunday's win was arguably the school's biggest since "Clyde" was on campus more than 30 years ago.
"We set a goal - it sounded crazy back in the spring - to make the Sweet 16. Right now, the Southern Illinois Salukis are going to be there," said Weber, who is in his fourth season.
With SIU nursing a two-point lead with 25 seconds to go, Dearman missed a shot but got his own rebound.
Georgia's Jonas Hayes was then called for an intentional foul - much to the chagrin of animated coach Jim Harrick - and Rolan Roberts made the second of two free throws to give the Salukis a 74-71 lead with 14 seconds left.
"I've seen that happen at least 15 times this year and I've never seen an intentional foul called," Harrick said. "That bothers me when it's so inconsistent. If they're going to call it, they ought to call it all the time. "
Southern Illinois retained possession and Brad Korn, fouled by Steve Thomas, hit two free throws for a five-point lead.
After a basket by Georgia's Rashad Wright cut it back to three, the Bulldogs took a timeout.
Brooks, who scored 13 of his 16 points in the second half, hit the first of two free throws for a 77-73 lead. After Wright drove again for a layup, the Salukis inbounded the ball and ran out the clock.
"We should have kept the pressure on them. They made a great comeback," Wright said. "They played good defense, good pressure, and they tried to make us do things we didn't want to do."
Jarvis Hayes, Jonas' twin, led Georgia (22-10) with 26 points and 11 rebounds. Wright added 16 points as the Bulldogs lost despite a 45-27 rebounding edge.
When Jarvis Hayes banked in a 3-pointer, Georgia roared ahead 30-11 with an aggressive early defense and physical play on the inside.
The Salukis went to work on defense, and Dearman provided the offense. The 6-foot-8 forward scored SIU's final 10 points in a startling 24-8 run, punctuating the spurt with a dunk as the Salukis closed to 38-35 at halftime.
"A lot of them were tip-ins. I looked up at the score and we were down 18, 19 points. I knew I just had to play hard," Dearman said.
Â
