Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Southern Illinois University
0-2
Saint Louis
2-0
Saint Louis shuts down Men's Basketball, 61-42
11/15/2011 | 12:00:00 | Men's Basketball
Nov. 15, 2011
By Tom Weber
SIUSalukis.com
CARBONDALE, Ill. - Saint Louis used a smothering man-to-man defense to subdue Southern Illinois, 61-42, on Tuesday night in a non-conference game at SIU Arena.
There were no easy baskets for the Salukis (0-2), who converted just 8-of 39 field goals for a school-record low 20.5 percent from the field. The Billikens (2-0) contested every screen, every pass and every shot.
"They put their foot on our throat," SIU head coach Chris Lowery said. "They really did a good job of pressuring us. They took us out of a lot of things we try to do."
Saluki seniors Mamadou Seck and Justin Bocot entered the game averaging 18.0 points apiece, but they combined to go 2-of-10 shooting from the field. SIU spent much of the first half trying to establish the duo on the pick-and-roll to no success. All seven of Seck's points in the game came at the free throw line, and Bocot had a team-high eight points as no one reached double figures for Southern.
"Saint Louis is well-coached and did a great job of preparing for us," Lowery said.
The Billikens started slowly, leading just 8-6 after seven minutes, but they overwhelmed SIU the rest of the half, finishing with a 29-9 run. Brian Conklin had 10 of his game-high 14 points in the first half.
Lowery was more impressed with Conklin's defense, though. The burly 6-foot-6 senior made life miserable for Seck.
"Conklin did a great job in man-to-man coverage on Seck," Lowery said. "He just physically got into him. Conklin out-muscled him."
Trailing by 22 points at halftime, 37-15, the Salukis were the aggressor in the second half, outscoring SLU, 27-24. Eighteen of their 27 points came from the free throw line, as Southern had the Billikens over the limit on fouls at the 12-minute mark.
"Defensively, we played well until the second half, when we made those foolish fouls, but we played good defense," said Saint Louis head coach Rick Majerus.
Southern was equally ineffective shooting the ball inside or outside. During one particularly frustrating sequence in the second half, the Salukis missed five point-blank shots in a frenetic attempt to force the ball through the hoop, before Cory Remekun finally pulled down a defensive rebound for SLU.
The Salukis were 1-for-9 from 3-point range after going 1-for-10 in the opener against Ohio Dominican.
"1-for-9 and 1-for-10 are not going to get it, but we have to make the easy ones first, and that will lead to other ones down the road," Lowery said.
A particularly ugly stat for Southern was its one assist versus 14 turnovers. Lowery changed lineups to start the second half, inserting freshman Josh Swan at point guard. Although Swan did not score in the game or distribute an assist, he did a better job of controlling the tempo, Lowery said.
"He's our point guard at this point," said Lowery, who used a four-guard attack for stretches of the second half. "He really understands what we're trying to do. We're going to play him a lot more at that 1 position."
Freshman bigs Treg Setty and Dantiel Daniels both had positive moments in the game for the Salukis. Setty scored eight points, while Daniels blocked five shots and grabbed six rebounds. Lowery said he will continue to use his team's five freshmen extensively.
"They have to grow up and they have to grow up fast," Lowery said. "We have a little more time and space in between these games to watch this film and see what they did to us and improve from that."
