Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Southern Illinois University
1-2
Kent State
3-0
| Team | 1 | 2 | F |
|---|---|---|---|
| Southern Illinois | 28 | 23 | 51 |
| Kent State | 43 | 31 | 74 |
Kent State cruises past Men's Basketball, 74-51
11/21/2014 | 12:00:00 | Men's Basketball
By Tom Weber
SIUSalukis.com
KENT, Ohio - Kent State dominated both ends of the floor during a 74-51 victory over Southern Illinois on Friday in the opening night of the Kent State Invitational.
The Golden Flashes (3-0) made 10-of-18 shots from 3-point range while holding SIU's star guard Anthony Beane to 12 points on 4-of-11 shooting.
From the opening tip, the outcome was never in doubt, as Kent State quickly bolted to a double-digit lead. The winning formula on offense was to soften SIU up with the strong inside presence of forward Jimmy Hall, who scored 16 points, while freeing up shooters like Kris Brewer, who went 3-for-3 from behind the arc and had a game-high 17 points.
"(Kent State) just came out in the first half and said, `we're going to take them to the woodshed,' and they did," said SIU head coach Barry Hinson, whose team trailed 43-28 at halftime. "When you have your veteran perimeter players play as bad as ours did tonight, it doesn't give you an opportunity to get off to a very good start."
Coming off a career-high 32-point game against Tennessee State on Tuesday, Beane was a marked man. He was hounded all night by KSU guard Derek Jackson, who forced the junior guard into four turnovers.
"Tennessee State is not as quick or athletic as these guys or as strong," Hinson said. "(Beane) has a bullseye. He has to learn that he can't beat everybody off the dribble when he first catches the ball -- that's just not how offense works. You have to give it up and you have to move, and he'll do that. The one thing about Anthony is he'll do what we ask him to do."
SIU's back court was completely over-matched. The starting trio had one assist and 10 turnovers, and as a group, the guards were 1-for-6 from 3-point range.
"They have some good shooters that we guarded to where they couldn't get a (3-point shot) off," said KSU head coach Rob Senderoff. "Derek on the defensive end set the tone. Anthony Beane is a great player -- as good as we'll face. Even only allowing him to get 11 shots, I thought we did a pretty good job defensively."
There were some bright spots for the Salukis. The front-court tandem of Jordan Caroline (11 points, 8 rebounds) and Sean O'Brien (12 points, 5 rebounds) was effective at times. Back-up center Bola Olaniyan also contributed eight points and eight rebounds. At one point, Hinson put all three players on the court at the same time.
"We were forced to do it because our guards were so bad," he explained. "We felt like if we moved Sean to the perimeter, he'll play better or as good as those other guards, and he did. Our interior players played pretty well tonight for the most part."
The Salukis (1-2) came as close as 13 points on a conventional three-point play by Beane with 14:17 remaining in the game, but the Golden Flashes snuffed out the rally with a 5-0 run. Their biggest lead of the night grew to 24 points.
Southern's defensive gameplan was to stop dribble penetration by the athletic Kent State guards and force them to shoot from outside the arc. The Salukis were unsuccessful on both counts, allowing frequent trips to the rim and wide-open looks from deep.
"It's easy to shoot from the three when you're up 10-15 points because you just don't have that pressure on you," Hinson said. "They've typically not shot the ball from the perimeter that way. We kept telling our guys during the timeouts that they're not going to shoot like this the rest of the game, and if they do, we'll get beat, and they did shoot that way the rest of the game."
SIU will play Yale, which defeated UIC by 12 points in the early game, tomorrow at 4 p.m. CT.
"We have to learn from this, we have to grow up really fast, we can't pout," Hinson said. "We have to play a team that's completely opposite of (Kent State) tomorrow and a team that's incredibly smart."
