Southern Illinois University
9-3, 2-0
Wichita St.
11-3, 2-1
Men's Basketball tops Wichita State, 58-49
01/02/2006 | 12:00:00 | Men's Basketball
Jan. 2, 2006
By Tom Weber
www.SIUSalukis.com
CARBONDALE, Ill. - Southern Illinois won its seventh-straight game, turning in another superb defensive performance in beating Wichita State, 58-49, Monday night at SIU Arena.
During the winning streak, Southern has held each opponent below 55 points.
"I don't think we've seen pressure like that this year," said Wichita State center Paul Miller, who finished with 24 points -- nearly half his team's total.
The Salukis (9-3, 2-0) held Wichita to just 26 percent shooting in the second half and forced 20 turnovers in the game.
The Saluki backcourt trio of Jamaal Tatum, Tony Young and Bryan Mullins sped from one spot to another to deny Shocker players an open look at the basket.
"They have three little guys out there, and the ground they cover is just amazing," said Wichita State head coach Mark Turgeon. "The thing about SIU, though, is you might think it's a good look, and then all of the sudden there's a guy who comes running at you and closing it."
"Those three guys are a menace," Saluki head coach Chris Lowery laughed. "They were just like little flys chasing."
Lowery said Southern employed a slightly different defensive strategy against the Shockers, whose two leading scorers are Miller, a 6-foot-10 center, and 6-foot-8 forward Kyle Wilson.
Rather than double-team Miller, as the Salukis would typically do against a talented center, they mainly played him one-on-one.
"We didn't go up on Miller as much as we normally do on big guys, but we haven't played against a (forward) who can shoot it good like (Wilson) can," Lowery explained. "We took one on the chin from one guy, but we shut out everybody else."
The scheme worked as Wilson missed all three shots on the night and finished with two points.
The Salukis trailed, 34-30, with 11:44 to go in the game, but seized control with a 12-3 run.
Southern increased the defensive pressure down the stretch, allowing the Shockers just two field goals in the final five minutes of the game. SIU pulled away by hitting 10-straight free throws to end the contest.
"It's really just a matter of coming out and being clutch at the end of the game and being clutch at the end of the shot clock," Young said. "We do so many drills about it in practice, that it wouldn't feel right if we didn't do it at the end of the game."
"They wanted it a little more than we did down the stretch," Turgeon simply said.
Besides playing outstanding defense, Southern's trio of guards carried much of the offensive burden as well.
Young had a season high 17 points, including three, 3-pointers in the first half. Tatum added 14 points, while Mullins had 10.
Matt Shaw turned in another strong performance for the Salukis with 11 points, six rebounds and four assists.
Southern extended its home winning streak to 29 games, tied with Illinois for the second-longest streak in the nation and three games behind Gonzaga.
"We really wanted to come in here and break the streak," Turgeon said. "It's something we talked about since the game ended the other night. We wanted to do it. We just weren't good enough offensively to do it."
Lowery said he doesn't look forward to playing the Shockers (11-3, 2-1) at Wichita in February.
"I'm scared," he said. "I don't want to go on the road. These guys are good."
The Salukis also won their 38th-straight conference home game, three shy of the MVC record. After one week of conference play, SIU stands atop the Valley standings as the only unbeaten team.
