Southern Illinois University
1-1
Monmouth
1-1
Men's Basketball falls to Monmouth, 80-68
11/25/2005 | 12:00:00 | Men's Basketball
Nov. 24, 2005
By Shalae Schulte
www.siusalukis.com
ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Alaska may have been in the middle of the biggest snow storm that the state has seen in five years outside, but Monmouth (N.J.) (1-1) was on fire inside Sullivan Arena, putting all four starting guards in double-figure scoring. The Hawks shot 75 percent from the field the second half of play, missing just four shots to hand SIU (1-1) its first loss of the young season.
The Salukis (1-1) fell, 80-68, to the Hawks (1-1) Thanksgiving night in the first round of the Great Alaska Shootout.
The game was close through the first half, the Hawks leading 31-30 at the break. Five minutes into the second half, after a jumper by Jamaal Tatum to tie the game at 40, Monmouth scored 11 unanswered points to pull ahead for good.
"They are very good at passing the basketball, they are very skilled," Lowery added. "We needed to make them go against the shot clock and we didn't. We allowed them to get shots early and then they go back into the match-up zone and we panicked. They did take over the flow of the game and we could never change it to our pace and they won because of it."
The Salukis were forced to play an uncharacteristic four-guard rotation most of the game to match the quick offense the Hawks threw at them.
"They didn't hurt us inside, they hurt us on cuts," Lowery said. "We totally had to change our principles and we weren't very good at doing that. We had to play four guards and we had to play small. We lost on the boards by one (32-31) and that was a direct results of not having big guys in the whole time."
The Salukis put up 17 turnovers and gave Monmouth 29 attempts at the charity stripe, the Hawks taking advantage of 22.
"We usually wear people down defensively," Lowery added. "But tonight we were very undisciplined after we gave the ball up. (Monmouth) is very well-coached. It's a tough style to play against and we got stuck and they hurt us on some back doors."
Tatum led the Salukis with a season-high 20 points, five assists and two steals. Fellow guards Mike Dale and Tony Young combined for 25 points, nine rebounds, including a career-high five boards from Dale.
Bryan Mullins and Jamaal Foster played well off the bench for SIU. Mullins added nine points, along with three assists and five steals, while Foster added a career-high seven boards, five points.
Monmouth guard Tyler Azzarelli led all players with 22 points, five assists, while Dejan Delic added 19 points and seven assists and six boards. Marques Alston and Chris Kenny pitched in 13 each for the Hawks.
Southern enters the consolation bracket against Alaska-Anchorage Friday at 5 p.m. CST.
"My biggest concern is our maturity level on the road to see if we can grow up," Lowery said. "This is the first part of growing up, learning how to deal with fatigue on the road and learning how to deal with being down and dealing with your shot not going in. We got to get our heads up or we're going to go home from this tournament pretty upset."
