Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Southern Illinois University
5-4
Southeast Missouri
0-10
| Team | 1 | 2 | F |
|---|---|---|---|
| Southeast Missouri State | 30 | 38 | 68 |
| Southern Illinois | 43 | 40 | 83 |
Men's Basketball coasts past SEMO, 83-68
12/08/2010 | 12:00:00 | Men's Basketball
Dec. 8, 2010
By Tom Weber
SIUSalukis.com
CARBONDALE, Ill. - Jack Crowder came off the bench to score a career-high 16 points -- all of them coming in the first half -- as Southern Illinois coasted to an 83-68 win over Southeast Missouri State on Wednesday.
The Salukis (5-4) never trailed in the game and led by as many as 30, before head coach Chris Lowery pulled his starters with eight minutes remaining.
Crowder, a senior guard whose previous high was nine points, made all four of his 3-point shots, and that loosened up the SEMO defense, paving the way for Southern's dominant inside game.
The front court trio of Carlton Fay (15), Mamadou Seck (14) and Gene Teague (13) all scored in double figures for Southern.
"Crowder really opened the game for these guys and then they got out of hand," said SEMO head coach Dickie Nutt, whose Redhawks dropped to 0-10 on the season. "They are a big, strong basketball team, and I think Teague makes them go. He is a handful."
Teague added 10 rebounds to his 13 points for his third double-double of the season and sixth of his career.
"When you can get some shots to fall down, all of a sudden you have a major player inside and it makes their team much better," Nutt observed. "I'm sure the four loses goes back to shooting the ball because he is such a force inside."
SIU appears to have found a successful formula by starting the 6-foot-7 Seck at the small forward, alongside power forward Fay.
"I think that's us continuing to learn who we are," Lowery said. "Seck can make plays on his own without us running plays for him. Carlton is good on the block. It's imposing because those guys play hard and they're aggressive."
The Redhawks were in foul trouble throughout the game. Their leading scorer -- Leon Powell -- picked up his third foul late in the first half. He made all six of his field goal attempts but fouled out after 20 minutes of play.
He wasn't the only one in foul trouble. SEMO committed 33 fouls sending SIU to the free throw line 45 times, where it converted 35 -- the third-most in school history and the most since 1988.
Fay made of 11-of-12 from the charity stripe, while Seck added 8-of-8.
The game was close until the final five minutes of the first half. After Powell made a lay up to draw the Redhawks to within 24-23, the Salukis ended the half on a 19-7 run.
"We felt like we hung with them for about 15 minutes and then the gate finally fell open and we could not recover," Nutt said. "I thought our guys played as hard as they could."
Southern Illinois recorded a season-high 11 steals in the game, with Justin Bocot and Mykel Cleveland each picking up three.
"I think we learned at Chicago State we're too athletic to let people catch the ball on the wing," explained Lowery. "We wanted to quit being so safe on those wings. They back-doored us two times, but we wanted them to be conscious on each catch that we were going to be there defensively."
Led by Crowder, the Salukis got 30 points from their bench -- alleviating a concern Lowery had since inserting Seck and Kendal Brown-Surles into the starting lineup two games ago.
"Even though we put Kendal and Seck in the lineup, our bench is really scoring at a high clip still," Lowery said. "So that shows that these guys are competitive and playing for each other."
Crowder became the seventh different player to lead SIU in scoring this year in nine games.
"(Jack) scored 1,000 points in two years as a JUCO, and we knew he could score," Lowery said. "We just didn't know how to use him last year and he was hurt. Now we've figured out stuff he can do when he's in and that's what were doing."
