Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Southern Illinois University
11-17
UIC
14-14
| Team | 1 | 2 | F |
|---|---|---|---|
| Southern Illinois | 24 | 43 | 67 |
| Illinois - Chicago | 35 | 39 | 74 |
Men's Basketball rally comes up shy at UIC
02/21/2009 | 12:00:00 | Men's Basketball
Feb. 21, 2009
By Tom Weber
www.SIUSalukis.com
CHICAGO, Ill. - Southern Illinois couldn't stop Illinois-Chicago's 3-point bombers -- Josh Mayo and Robo Kreps -- as the Flames beat SIU, 74-67, Saturday night in a BracketBusters game at UIC Pavilion.
Mayo and Kreps finished with 25 and 20 points respectively, and combined to make nine of UIC's 11 3-pointers.
The Salukis (11-17) jumped out to a 7-0 lead to start the game, catching the Flames off-guard with a half-court, trapping defense that produced three turnovers in the first 90 seconds.
Unfortunately for Southern, the aggressive defense came with a price, as guards Ryan Hare and Wesley Clemmons both racked up three first-half fouls.
With only four guards on the roster, SIU was forced to set Hare and Clemmons on the bench and go "big" toward the end of the first half. A 24-22 lead was erased during a 13-0 UIC run to end the half. Mayo and Kreps each made triples during the run.
"Mayo's good," Saluki head coach Chris Lowery said of the Horizon League's preseason MVP. "We know that. We let him get open too many times in the guts of the game. He and Kreps really did a great job of scoring."
UIC built its biggest lead of the night, 46-31, on a fast-break layup by Kreps with 12:55 remaining in the game.
The Salukis made only three of their first 20 shots from 3-point range, but Kevin Dillard found his range late. His triple with 9:02 to go sliced the lead to 47-38. A pair of Tony Boyle free throws made it 47-40.
At that point, Lowery, sensing his team was fatigued, and not wanting to pick up additional fouls, switched to a zone defense -- something rarely seen in his five years as head coach at SIU.
"We were in foul trouble," Lowery said. "That's why we did it. We couldn't play man. We had some guys playing long stretches. Kevin -- he can't guard when he's playing 38 minutes. He's guarding Josh Mayo, so we had to figure out something to do, and we went to zone."
The Flames carved up the zone with a pair of baskets from downtown by Mayo and Kreps and a layup by Jeremy Buttell to push the lead back to 12.
"If we would have made one key stop down the stretch, I feel we could have pulled it out," said Dillard, who finished with a team-high 17 points.
"You can't win the game when you don't guard, and we haven't guarded well enough to win," added Lowery.
The Salukis had one run left in them. Dillard converted a trio of 3-pointers in the final two minutes of the game, and Ryan Hare added one also, as SIU pulled to within 70-67 with 31 seconds remaining.
UIC made all four of its free throws the rest of the way to secure the victory.
