Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Southern Illinois University
3-4
New Mexico
5-1
New Mexico pulls away in second half to beat Men's Basketball, 74-59
12/01/2010 | 12:00:00 | Men's Basketball
Dec. 1, 2010
By Tom Weber
SIUSalukis.com
CARBONDALE, Ill. - New Mexico threw a defensive lock-down on the starting lineup for Southern Illinois and pulled away in the second half for a 74-59 win in a Missouri Valley-Mountain West Conference Challenge game on Wednesday.
The Lobos (5-1) led by three at halftime, but outscored the Salukis (3-4) in the first 10 minutes of the second half by a 26-12 margin.
The biggest problem for Southern was that its five starters could never get untracked, combining to score just 19 points on the night.
Here's a sampling of the how the game went for the Saluki starters.
Point guard Mykel Cleveland picked up two fouls in the first 20 seconds of the game and was whistled for two more early in the second. He was on the court for a mere one minute.
The heralded front-court tandem of Carlton Fay and Gene Teague were also held in check. Fay scored 10 points, but was 0-for-7 from 3-point range. Teague, the team's leading scorer, had three points.
Saluki head coach Chris Lowery said the Lobos were determined not to let Southern's bigs beat them.
"They did a lot of packed-in defense in the first half to take Gene away," he said.
Although Teague was able to foul-out both front-court starters for New Mexico -- A.J. Hardeman and Alex Kirk -- head coach Steve Alford said they were good fouls, because they kept Teague from getting in a rhythm.
"We never really let him get in the flow," Alford said. "They've been a team that likes to get the ball inside and dribble drive it. They drove it well on us in the last six minutes, but we really did a good job defending the drive otherwise."
The Salukis made one run at the Lobos in the second half, cutting the deficit to 45-40 on a fast-break layup by Kendal Brown-Surles. But UNM ran off eight unanswered points in a span of two minutes to regain control.
According to Alford, the key to his team's victory was its ability to navigate Southern's rabid man-to-man defense. New Mexico was 7-of-16 from 3-point range and committed just 13 turnovers.
"Thirteen turnovers against that pressure, we'll take that," he said. "In our league, UNLV gets up and treats you like that. We were really concerned about Southern's pressure and I thought we handled it really well. "
Of some consolation to Lowery was the play of his bench, which scored 40 points. Troy Long led the team with a career-high 13 points and was 3-of-6 from 3-point. Brown-Surles had a remarkable stat line with 10 points, eight assists and five rebounds. Forward Mamadou Seck provided a second-half spark scoring seven of his 10 points in the final 20 minutes.
Lowery hinted there might be changes in the starting lineup when the Salukis play at Chicago State on Saturday.
"I think Kendal has established himself as our point guard," he said.
The 6-foot-7 Seck might crack the lineup as well.
"Having (Seck) start and putting him at the three is something we are definitely going to look at, because he does a good job of drawing fouls and playing hard," Lowery said.
New Mexico was led by point guard Dairese Gary's 15 points. Alford was pleased with the supporting cast, also, as three other players scored in double figures -- Phillip McDonald (11), Emmanuel Negedu (11) and Jamal Fenton (10).
"You win in this building -- it's a good win," he said. "They don't lose a lot in this building. They've already played Purdue, already played Illinois. Now, we are going to get (RPI) percentage points all year long from Purdue and Illinois' schedules."
