Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Men's Basketball plays at Creighton on Tuesday night
02/19/2013 | 12:00:00 | Men's Basketball
Feb. 19, 2013
OMAHA, Neb. - Southern Illinois (11-15, 4-11) plays at Creighton (21-6, 10-5) on Tuesday night in the CenturyLink Center Arena. The game will be televised locally in southern Illinois on WSIU.
The Salukis have won three of their last four games, while Bluejays have lost five of their last seven and have dropped out of the national rankings and are one game behind Wichita State in the Missouri Valley Conference standings.
Salukis have won two in a row and three of last four
Until last week, the last time SIU recorded back-to-back conference wins was when it beat Illinois State and Bradley on Jan. 1 and 4, 2012 -- a span of 29 games. The last time it had won three out of four MVC games was at the start of the 2011 season.
Saluki defense improving
In its first 11 MVC games, SIU allowed opponents to shoot 50 percent from the field and 43 percent from 3-point. In the last four games, those numbers dropped to 44 and 37 percent, respectively. The Salukis held Missouri State scoreless for a 4:54 stretch to open Saturday's game and held Evansville scoreless for 8:16 during a stretch of the second half last Wednesday.
Breaking the 65-point plateau
SIU has not surpassed the 65-point plateau on offense since scoring 66 at Bradley on Jan. 15 -- a span of nine games. The last time Southern went nine-straight games without topping 65 points was during the 1948-49 season. The 1946-47 team went 11-straight games below the mark.
Road losing streak
SIU has a 14-game losing streak in road conference games. The last Valley road win came at Bradley on Jan. 4, 2012. The longest MVC road losing streak in school history is 15 games from 1982-84.
Recapping the last meeting
Creighton shot 63 percent from the field, including 12-of-20 from 3-point range, to beat SIU in Carbondale, 81-51, on Jan. 27. The Salukis suffered the third-worst defeat in arena history and by the largest margin since falling by 33 points to Saint Louis in 1989.
Trending
SIU shot 51 percent from the field against Missouri State on Saturday -- the first time it topped the 50 percent mark at home since the opener vs. Benedictine-Sprinfield...G T.J. Lindsay (6-3, 169, Sr.) is 9-for-18 from 3-point range in the last six games...G Jalen Pendleton (6-2, 201, Fr.) is averaging 10.3 ppg in the last four games...The Salukis attempted a season-low 43 shots Saturday against Missouri State. It was the fewest shots attempted by a Saluki team since taking 39 versus Saint Louis last season.
