Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Southern Illinois University
9-2, 3-0
Indiana St.
5-6, 1-2
| Team | 1 | 2 | F |
|---|---|---|---|
| Southern Illinois | 38 | 29 | 67 |
| Indiana State | 23 | 27 | 50 |
Men's Basketball Tops Indiana State, 67-50
01/07/2004 | 12:00:00 | Men's Basketball
Jan. 7, 2004
By Tom Weber
www.SIUSalukis.com
TERRE HAUTE, Ind. - Sometimes, adversity has a way of bringing out the best in a team. Such was the case Wednesday night when Southern Illinois, behind Bryan Turner's career-high 17 points, defeated Indiana State, 67-50.
The Salukis (9-2, 3-0) were coming off a home loss five days earlier to Charlotte that snapped the school's 31-game home winning streak. And on Monday, reserve point guard Jamaal Tatum was suspended for the game for violating team rules.
Turner entered the game mired in a season-long shooting slump. He was just 6-of-31 on the season from 3-point range entering the game, but made 5-of-8 against the Sycamores (5-6, 1-2).
"He's always been a good shooter as long as I've known him," said teammate Darren Brooks, who led all scorers with 19 points. "I tried to tell him 'Don't get down on yourself.' He's been down on himself a little bit. I told him to keep shooting and keep coming in and working on your shot, and everything else will take care of itself."
"We knew it was a matter of time before he busted out and made somebody pay," Saluki coach Matt Painter said. "Tonight, he really gave us a lift."
While the outcome of the game was never in question, a turning point came with 13:10 remaining in the first half. Saluki freshman guard Tony Young stole the ball from Tyson Schnitker and converted a layup to give Southern its first lead, 10-8.
On the Sycamores' next possession, SIU's Stetson Hairston jumped into the Sycamores' passing lane, intercepted the pass and hammered home a one-handed dunk on the other end. Not content, Hairston offered a repeat performance on ISU's next trip down the floor and finished the play off with a two-handed dunk.
"(Indiana State) did a very good job of defending us early in the game, and we were struggling offensively because of their pressure and the way they pushed us out a little bit," Painter said. "For us to be able to score off our defense really helped us."
Southern's ever-tenacious defense played true to form, holding the Sycamores to 23 points in the first half, the sixth time in 11 games this season SIU has held an opponent to 25 or fewer points in the first half.
"Every game is a defensive mindset," Turner said. "We come in with the gameplan of trying to lockdown a team and outrebound them."
Speaking of the battle of the boards, Southern won it handily, 35-16. The 16 rebounds by Indiana State were the fewest ever by a Saluki opponent. The 19-rebound advantage was Southern's biggest in a game since out-boarding Northern Iowa by 19 on Jan. 12, 2002.
"We work a lot of hours in practice on rebounding," Painter said. "Sometimes it doesn't look that way because we're not a great rebounding team. In the first half we outrebounded them 20-9, and that kind of set the tone. We weren't allowing any second chance points."
The Salukis led 38-23 at halftime, and Indiana State came as close as nine points, 47-38, on a 3-pointer by Schnitker with 10:33 left in the game.
But SIU went on a 14-3 run during the next five minutes, capped off by a Turner 3-pointer that gave the Salukis their biggest lead of the night, 61-41, with 5:52 remaining.
It was Turner's fifth and final triple of the evening.
"I just tried to relax a little bit and shoot the ball the same way I do in practice and the same way I've been shooting since I was 11 years old," Turner said. "The coaches have been really supportive of me and telling me it's going to come."
Painter said his confidence in Turner has never wavered.
"I wouldn't let someone continue to shoot, if they were shooting 20 percent, if they couldn't shoot the basketball," he said. "Bryan Turner can make baskets and make open threes, and tonight he proved it."
One of the keys to the victory was a tremendous defensive effort that held ISU's leading scorer, David Moss, to five points on 2-of-8 shooting.
"We tried not to let him get the ball in the post," Brooks said. "We wanted to keep him on the outside and make him make tough shots."
Another instrumental factor in the win was the play of Young, who scored a career-high eight points off the bench, picking up the slack for Tatum.
Southern Illinois has won eight of the last nine meetings with Indiana State, including four in a row at the Hulman Center.
