Southern Illinois University
20-6, 11-3MVC
Creighton
15-10, 7-7MVC
Men's Basketball Defeats Creighton, 71-67
02/12/2005 | 12:00:00 | Men's Basketball
Feb. 12, 2005
By Scott Mees
www.SIUSalukis.com
Listen to Postgame Press Conferences
Lowery | Altman and Mathies | Hairston | Owen | Tatum
CARBONDALE, Ill. - The Salukis used a late first-half run and a strong start in the second half to take down their biggest rivals for the fourth consecutive game. SIU also moved back into a first-place tie with Wichita State, which lost at Bradley on Saturday night.
Jamaal Tatum scored 18 points and Stetson Hairston added 17 Saturday as the Southern Illinois University men's basketball team defeated Creighton 71-67 at SIU Arena.
"Our guys showed toughness, and we played through a lot of stuff in that game," said SIU head coach Chris Lowery. "Our guys never lost their composure, and we were able to get a victory."
Hairston looked particularly aggressive, and Tatum shied away from the 3-point shot in favor of his patented pull-up jump shot.
"Jamaal Tatum was special in that first half when he just made shot after shot," Lowery said.
The Salukis (20-6, 11-3) carried a seven-point edge into the half, and they carried that momentum through the first part of the second half. Hairston drained three tough 3-pointers in the opening nine minutes, which kept pushing Southern's lead back up to six, seven and nine points.
The crowd, of 9,207, erupted when Hairston nailed his third long bomb - of the second half - as SIU went up 51-42 with just over 11 minutes remaining in the game.
"Stetson, he's a hot and cold guy," Lowery said. "He was hot today, he had tremendous energy, and he really did a good job of talking through Creighton's offense."
Shortly thereafter, LaMar Owen picked Pierce Hibma's pocket and took off to the other end for a ferocious dunk. After a Darren Brooks' 3-pointer, Owen tipped in a Josh Warren miss, and SIU went up 58-47 with 7:34 left in the contest.
"We basically just wanted to play defense, and get after them," Owen said. "They starting turning the ball over a little bit, and we just continued to contribute."
Creighton could not stop Tatum, who hit a hanging jump shot - in the lane - and converted the free throw for a 3-point play. Then, JT dribbled around traffic and sank a jumper off the glass to put the Salukis up 63-51 with 4:31 to play.
"I got back to what made me good in high school, what I've been good at, in the past, is shooting pull-up jump shots," Tatum said. "It felt good tonight hitting a few shots."
The Bluejays (15-10, 7-7) hit a barrage of late 3-point goals, but Tony Young - who didn't play much due to foul trouble - came off the bench to drain some clutch free throws - and a nice floating jumper - in the game's waning moments.
"They (SIU) hit big shots when they had to," said Creighton head coach Dana Altman. "We couldn't get a timely stop and make a run there."
SIU shot consistently in both halves, and it made 47-percent of its shots for the basketball game. The Salukis also performed well - and in control - from beyond the arc; SIU was 7-of-16 from downtown.
Nate Funk led CU with 19 points, and Johnny Mathies added 16, but he shot just 4-of-13 from the field. Creighton only managed to shoot 34-percent from the field in the second half.
"We wanted to make him (Funk) work, but he can shoot it from all over the floor," Lowery said. "I think we really made other people take shots, and that kind of helped us."
At the beginning of the game, Creighton jumped out to a 10-5 advantage, after a trey by Mathies. But, SIU bounced back as it received a steal, layup and 3-point play from Hairston. Young came in briefly, and the sophomore drained a 3-pointer before he finished a fast break with a layup - courtesy of a solid Brooks' pass.
The turning point came after CU's Dane Watts hit a jump shot to put Creighton up 30-29 with 4:22 remaining in the opening half. SIU proceeded to go on an 8-0 run to finish the half. Tatum hit a pair of jump shots, and Brooks stole the inbounds pass from Jimmy Motz, which gave him an easy layup to finish the half.
"That was a killer," Altman said. "That was a big turnaround. We were trying to get two possessions, and them have one. It ended up they had two, and we had a charge."
However, it was Hairston who drove around his man, on the left baseline, and went in for a thunderous dunk that put the Saluki crowd into hysteria. Hairston just had that fiery look in his eye, then he faked a shot, and blew by his man for the stuff.
"It's been a while, and I'm getting kind of old getting to the right like that," Hairston said. "You can't go up soft on the big guys down there."
SIU led by seven points, 37-30, at halftime.
Brooks scored 10 points, dished out six assists and grabbed four boards for SIU - who outrebounded Creighton 40-30 in the contest. Young added 10 points in just 11 minutes of action. Owen contributed eight points, five rebounds and three huge steals for the Salukis.
SIU plays at Illinois State on Wednesday at 7:05 p.m. The game will be televised by WSIU-TV.
