Southern Illinois University
SIUE
Men's Basketball stops SIU-Edwardsville, 50-31
11/12/2005 | 12:00:00 | Men's Basketball
Nov. 12, 2005
By Shalae Schulte
www.siusalukis.com
CARBONDALE, Ill. - There's that old saying, "Defense wins games."
That saying held true today as Southern Illinois shut down SIU-Edwardsville, 50-31, in the Salukis' final exhibition game of the pre-season.
The game was tight during the first ten minutes of play, but the conditioned Saluki defense started to wear on the Cougars, forcing 27 SIUE turnovers.
The game was tied 9-9 with 9:50 left in the first, but a free throw and dunk by Matt Shaw at 6:24 put SIU up for good, pulling away a 23-12 lead at the half on a three-pointer by Jamaal Tatum at the buzzer.
"We wore them down physically," Saluki head coach Chris Lowery said. "We brought in different people and changed the pace and we guarded them and guarded them. They had 12 points at half time and were just exhausted. "
SIU shot just over 28 percent from the field, an aspect of Saluki play that Lowery believes will improve.
"At this point offensively we have to get better," Lowery said, "but I'm totally satisfied with our play defensively and rebounding and that's how we are going to win games. Offensively we'll get better."
SIU out-rebounded the Cougars 52-32, with seven Saluki players recording five or more.
Tatum posted a game-high 12 points and five rebounds. The front court duo of Randal Falker and Matt Shaw each chipped in nine points, Shaw adding four boards and Falker, six boards and a block.
Jamaal Foster came off the bench to score seven points, adding a game-high 10 rebounds and two blocks.
Lowery was pleased with the team play, chalking up the uncharacteristic 20 turnovers to over-passing and lack of experience.
"We over-passed way too much," Lowery said. "We were turning the ball over trying to make another pass to someone more open than the original passer. That's good. We're trying to play together. We're not being selfish. Those are the type of things that are going to happen. Immaturity with the basketball is going to happen with our guys, but I'll settle for that, but they have to defend."
The Saluki defense held the Cougars to 10 of 36 from the field and 2 of 11 from behind the arc, while the Salukis were 17 of 60 and 2 of 11.
"I knew they were going to make it a grind out game and that's great for us to play against teams like that," Lowery said. "We still played grind out basketball, toughness on the block, toughness on the basketball. We got stuff done."
Southern hosts Louisiana-Lafayette in their regular season home opener Nov. 18 at 7 p.m.
