Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Southern Illinois University
12-17, 7-10MVC
Drake
17-13, 7-10MVC
| Team | 1 | 2 | F |
|---|---|---|---|
| Southern Illinois | 30 | 26 | 56 |
| Drake | 25 | 30 | 55 |
Men's Basketball wins thriller at Drake, 56-55
02/25/2009 | 12:00:00 | Men's Basketball
Feb. 25, 2009
By Tom Weber
www.SIUSalukis.com
DES MOINES, Iowa - Before the game, Drake celebrated Senior Night by honoring its five seniors. Once the ball went up, however, it was a determined group of Saluki freshmen that would eventually prevail.
Southern Illinois won a thriller, 56-55, behind 33 points from its freshman class. Drake had a chance to send the game into overtime, but Josh Young missed a free throw with 0.2 seconds remaining.
With the victory, the Salukis (12-17, 7-10) keep alive their hopes of avoiding a Thursday play-in game at next week's Missouri Valley Conference Tournament. The top six seeds play on Friday, March 6. SIU can clinch at worst a six seed with a win at home against Wichita State on Saturday.
Losers of four in a row and five of its last six, Southern needed something to go right, heading into the final week of the season.
"We kept talking about family and doing the right thing, pick your teammate up when things go wrong," said head coach Chris Lowery. "We just kept playing hard. I told them the harder we play, the luckier we are."
The Bulldogs (17-13, 7-10) rallied from a 12-point second-half deficit and seemed to have an emotional tailwind after Josh Parker's three-point play put Drake up, 49-48, with 3:53 remaining.
A roaring crowd of 4,835 had no effect on the Salukis, however, as Kevin Dillard stemmed the tide with a 3-pointer on SIU's next possession.
"That's what I like to play for -- clutch moments," said the freshman point guard, who finished with a team-high 15 points. "Big players are supposed to step up in big-time games."
Perhaps the biggest shot of the night came a minute later when Carlton Fay's triple with 1:45 left, put the Salukis ahead, 54-51.
"(Carlton) passed up two open shots earlier, and Kevin was screaming at him, "Shoot it!" Lowery said.
From that point forward, all Southern needed to do was make its free throws to secure the victory. Dillard hit a pair with 12 seconds to go to make the score 56-53. But after Drake's Craig Stanley split his pair of charity tosses with eight seconds -- closing the gap to 56-54 -- Ryan Hare missed the front end of the one-and-one for Southern with six ticks on the clock.
Young raced up the court and was fouled by Hare on the game's final play. He made the first free throw, but after a Saluki timeout, missed the second.
"We've been talking to these guys so much about, when negative things happen, don't melt down," Lowery said. "We only had two meltdowns, which is tremendous for this group."
The Salukis held Drake to just 28 percent shooting from the field. Take away Jonathan Cox, who led Drake with 17 points on 5-of-8 shooting from 3-point range, and the Bulldogs shot 21 percent.
"For us to come and guard like that on their court on Senior Night, that was a special effort by our young group," Lowery said.
The Salukis won for the fifth time on the road this season, and a youthful team that has struggled to maintain its composure at times, kept its cool against the Bulldogs.
"We played like a family tonight," DIllard said. "We didn't get down on each other. We didn't argue. We stayed positive the whole game."
Added Lowery, "I told them I have to start coaching you guys like you're an older team, and you have to start responding like an older team. We showed a maturity level today that we haven't shown since we lost Bryan Mullins. I thought we had a lot of poise."
After the game, Saluki head coach Chris Lowery confirmed that senior point guard Bryan Mullins had an x-ray on his right foot this week, and the stress fracture that has sidelined Mullins the last seven games has not healed. He is unlikely to play Saturday against Wichita State on the team's Senior Night.
Potential MVC Tournament Seeds
BU -- 4 or 5
CU -- 1 or 2
DU -- 7 or 8
UE -- 4, 5, or 6
ILS -- 3
INS -- 8 or 9
MSU -- 10
UNI -- 1 or 2
SIU -- 5, 6, 8, or 9
WSU -- 5, 6, 7, or 8
