Southern Illinois University
12-8, 4-6MVC
Indiana St.
12-9, 4-6MVC
Indiana State holds off Men's Basketball, 68-65
01/28/2010 | 12:00:00 | Men's Basketball
Jan. 28, 2010
By Tom Weber
www.SIUSalukis.com
TERRE HAUTE, Ind. - Missed free throws and a missed a opportunity -- that's what the Salukis will remember most about Thursday night's game in Terre Haute.
Southern Illinois missed a dozen free throw attempts, and with it, a golden opportunity to jump back into the Missouri Valley Conference race. Instead, Indiana State picked up a critical win, topping Southern, 68-65, in a battle of eighth-place teams hoping to avoid a Thursday play-in game in the conference tournament come March.
The Salukis (12-8, 4-6) were 13-of-25 from the line, including three misses late in the game that could have altered the outcome.
"Fifty-two percent is atrocious," said head coach Chris Lowery. "Eight-for-17 in the second half. We're a better free throw shooting team than that."
The Sycamores (12-9, 4-6) received a lift with the return of their leading scorer Dwayne Lathan, who missed the last five games with a leg injury but came off the bench to score nine points against the Salukis.
"Our team really needed that," said Indiana State head coach Kevin McKenna. "I'm just happy that our guys hung in there and got a win against a good team."
Southern jumped out to a 12-6 lead behind the powerful inside play of Gene Teague. The enormous freshman walled off defenders to score six of the team's first eight points. He finished the game with 11 points and 13 rebounds, though he was only 5-of-10 from the free throw line.
"You can't fault the kid," Lowery said. "He's getting touches and going to the rim every single time. He's not a good free throw shooter. We know that."
Indiana State went on a 13-1 run midway through the first half to seize control of the game. The Sycamores held SIU to 5-of-19 shooting to end the first half en route to a 32-26 halftime advantage.
ISU appeared to put the game away when Aaron Carter knocked down a 3-pointer with 5:37 remaining to give his squad its biggest lead of the night, 60-50.
The Salukis, however, made a valiant comeback as Justin Bocot started a 13-6 run with a breakaway dunk and Kevin Dillard capped the scoring burst with a driving layup that made the score 66-63 with 51 seconds remaining.
After an ISU turnover by Rashad Reed, Dillard was grabbed around the shoulder on his way to the basket by Brant Leitnaker with 21 seconds to go. The officials reviewed the tape to see if it was an intentional foul.
"We thought it was intentional, but it wasn't," Lowery said. "That's not up to me. We asked them to look at it, and they told me he made a play on the ball at first."
Dillard who led the team with 16 points and six assists, missed both free throws. I SU's Isiah Martin returned the favor seconds later by missing a pair of charity to sses.
That allowed Bocot to score a driving layup with 3.5 seconds to trim the lead to 66-65. The Salukis immediately fouled Aaron Carter, who made both free throws.
Southern had an opportunity to tie the game, but confusion between Carlton Fay and Dillard resulted in an easy steal for ISU's Harry Marshall to end the game. It was the 10th steal of the night by the Sycamore defense.
"We had 10 steals," McKenna said. "That's a lot for us. Give our guys credit for understanding what some of their team strengths were and trying to take those things away."
McKenna was especially pleased with the play of forward Carl Richard, who not only scored 11 points, but limited Fay to three.
"(Carl) held Fay to 1-for-8," McKenna noted. "He battled Fay and didn't give him too many open, easy looks. Fay usually gets a handful of those per game, and we were fortunate he missed a couple, but Carl did a good job on him."
Lowery was pleased with his team's late comeback, but said it shouldn't have come to that.
"I'm not disappointed in our effort, I'm just disappointed in our approach from the 10-minute mark to about the five-minute mark," he said. "Our discipline was not very good."
