Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Southern Illinois University
5-1
Louisiana Tech
1-4
Men's Basketball routs Louisiana Tech, 50-36
11/29/2006 | 12:00:00 | Men's Basketball
Nov. 29, 2006
By Tom Weber
www.SIUSalukis.com
RUSTON, La. - A crowd of 1,813 fans sat quietly through the first half at the Thomas Assembly Center Wednesday night, anxious to see if their hometown Bulldogs could reach double figures in scoring.
A rousing cheer came when Kyle Gibson finally hit a 3-pointer with 45 seconds left in the first half to give Louisiana Tech 12 points. The only problem for the home team was that Southern Illinois already had 28.
The Salukis (5-1) simply can't get much better defensively than they were in a 50-36 win against the Bulldogs (1-4). Louisiana Tech's starting five finished with a combined total of five points.
"That's probably the best defensive effort we've ever had as a team," SIU head coach Chris Lowery agreed.
The 36 total points was a school record for the fewest allowed in a game against a Division I opponent.
Louisiana Tech head coach Keith Richard described his team as "shell-shocked" by a Saluki defense that allowed just one basket in the first eight minutes of the game.
"Whether it's a shot, a pass or a drive, it's not going to be open very long against their defense," Richard said.
Offensively, Southern's strategy was to relentlessly pound the ball inside to big men Matt Shaw and Randal Falker.
"We force-fed our bigs," Lowery said. "We did a tremendous job staying disciplined on the offensive end, trying to make sure Matt and Randal got touches."
The junior forwards responded as Shaw poured in 15 points, and Falker added a dozen.
"We felt the big men had an advantage inside, so we tried to keep going to them," said Saluki guard Tony Young.
SIU point guard Bryan Mullins said the guards have no problem sharing the ball so much with the low-post players.
"There are a lot of games where the bigs sacrifice their scoring to get us open shots by setting screens," Mullins said. "It was nice to get it inside and let them have their day."
Southern never trailed in the game and led by as many as 22 points early in the second half. Although the outcome was not in question, Louisiana Tech came as close as nine, 38-29, with 8:47 left in the game, before SIU ramped up the defensive pressure again.
"We got our mojo back and really started guarding them," Lowery said.
Louisiana Tech made only two baskets in the game's final eight minutes.
"Obviously, we're kind of a mess right now in the half court offense, and it was really exposed against one of the top defenses in the country," Richard said.
Southern Illinois has a way of making an opponent's offense look bad, he said.
"It looked like they were in mud," Richard said of his team's attack.
Southern Illinois has held all six opponents this season below 65 points, an unprecedented run in school history to start a season.
"Those kids have tremendous heart to do what they did to those guys defensively," Lowery said. "That team is difficult to guard. We blew away everything guarding them today."
What makes the effort especially impressive is the fact SIU was playing its fourth game in seven days -- all of them away from home.
"Everybody was tired and telling about how dead their legs were," Shaw said. "We fought against fatigue."
"I think our legs are definitely feeling it, but we just put everything aside and played hard for 40 minutes," added Mullins.
Lowery said he was worried about a let-down, because his team just won two big games in Orlando and has a rivalry matchup with Saint Louis on Saturday.
"On the road, to come in here and physically dominate a team like that is a tremendous credit to those kids in the locker room."
