Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Southern Illinois University
6-8
Illinois State
11-3
| Team | 1 | 2 | F |
|---|---|---|---|
| Southern Illinois | 13 | 34 | 47 |
| Illinois State | 31 | 25 | 56 |
Men's Basketball falls to Illinois State, 56-47
01/05/2008 | 12:00:00 | Men's Basketball
Jan. 5, 2008
By Tom Weber
www.SIUSalukis.com
NORMAL, Ill. - Southern Illinois could not overcome a nightmarish first half and fell to Illinois State, 56-47, Saturday night at Redbird Arena.
How bad was it for the Salukis? Southern missed 16 shots and committed 13 turnovers before making its first field goal. SIU did not make a shot from the field until a Wesley Clemmons lay up with 3:57 left before halftime. The basket drew mock cheers from the crowd of 9,437.
"Never in my craziest dream would I expect that would happen," said Illinois State head coach Tim Jankovich, whose team led 25-3 after the first 16 minutes. "Maybe we were fortunate, but I do know our guys were dug-in and gave it everything they had."
The Salukis (6-8, 1-2) couldn't even get a shot off in the first four minutes of the game, committing turnovers on five-straight possessions.
"They came out and overwhelmed us," Saluki head coach Chris Lowery said. "They do what we do to people."
The Redbirds (11-3, 3-0) shot 50 percent from the field in the first half, while SIU "recovered" to make 4of-22 shots for 18 percent.
"That was an amazing, amazing first half," Jankovich said. "Our guys were totally locked in."
To Southern's credit, it sliced a 31-13 halftime deficit in half with a 9-0 run to start the second stanza. Matt Shaw scored seven-straight points during the run and finished with 15 points and a career-high 18 rebounds. Unfortunately for SIU, the Redbirds responded with an 11-0 run of their own to regain control of the game, 42-22. Levi Dyer made a pair of 3-pointers during the run and finished with a team-high 14 points.
"We didn't get blown out when the potential was there for it to be very, very ugly 15 minutes into the game," Lowery said.
Randal Falker also came to life in the second half for SIU, scoring nine of his 13 points.
"They've got some really outstanding veterans who have been in some awfully big games, and they play with a lot of pride," Jankovich said. "I was positive that the second half was going to be different than the first half."
The hole simply turned out to be too deep for SIU to climb out of.
"I thought we did a much better job in the second half defensively," Lowery said. "I thought our guys fought, but we had some very bad turnovers."
Lowery tried to stay positive about his team, which has dropped two-straight Missouri Valley Conference road games.
"This is adversity, and it's good for us," he said. "We have to learn how to fight through it and not just quit. I thought we fought through some tremendous adversity."
The Redbirds broke an 11-game losing streak to the Salukis that dated back to the 2002 season.
