Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Southern Illinois University
21-8, 10-6MVC
Evansville
22-7, 11-5MVC
| Team | 1 | 2 | F |
|---|---|---|---|
| Southern Illinois | 36 | 35 | 71 |
| Evansville | 45 | 38 | 83 |
Evansville tops Men's Basketball, 83-71
02/20/2016 | 12:00:00 | Men's Basketball
EVANSVILLE, Ind. - Evansville led from start to finish and by as many as 23 points in an 83-71 win over Southern Illinois on Saturday, completing a season sweep of the series between the teams.
The game was lopsided from the opening tip as the Purple Aces (22-7, 11-5) made their first six field goals of the game and shot 65 percent from the field in the first half. D.J. Balentine scored 27 points in a game in which Evansville sprinted to a double-digit lead and never looked back. Although SIU trimmed a 16-point deficit to nine at halftime, Evansville made the first bucket of the second half on a pull-up jumper by Balentine and never led by less than double figures thereafter.
Evansville's offense put on a clinic with precision passing that resulted in lots of wide-open looks. The Aces shot 55 percent from the field and had 18 assists on their 30 baskets. Defensively, they held SIU to 37 percent shooting, and although Anthony Beane scored 22 points, he was 8-for-21 from the field.
"I think they beat us in every aspect," said SIU head coach Barry Hinson. "I think they were more energetic, they were more prepared, they stuck to their gameplan. I think they did everything better than we did. If we don't learn from this, then we're going to have a really bad closing to the end of our season.
The Salukis (21-8, 10-6) dropped to fourth place, a game behind Evansville and Illinois State, and one game ahead of Northern Iowa. Their offense never clicked today, especially inside, where Evansville's 6-foot-10 center Egidijus Mockevicius blocked four shots and changed countless others. Coming off a 24-point outing versus Bradley, SIU forward Sean O'Brien was held to seven points on 3-of-11 shooting. Center Bola Olaniyan had 13 points and 12 rebounds for the Salukis, but he did much of his damage when Mockeviciius was on the bench with foul trouble.
"My dad had a term one time, he said, `son, you just wet your britches,'" Hinson said. "I think we wet our britches. We got a little scared. I told our team at the half we were soft, we're playing scared."
Southern's man-to-man defense was wholly ineffective, so Hinson switched to a zone. That helped, but the Salukis still couldn't contain Balentine or point guard Jaylon Brown, who added 19 points and four assists.
"You're really good when no one is guarding you," Hinson said. "His first dunk, no one picked him up for 94 feet. He had a highlight, ESPN dunk because nobody guarded him. I really believe if I had played today, I could have had double figures against us."
There were some bright spots for the Salukis. Forward Austin Weiher came off the bench and made all three of his 3-point attempts to finish with 11 points. Although Beane didn't shoot the ball as efficiently as he has at times this year, he drew waves of defenders and dished out a team-high five assists. The senior guard moved into third place all-time in scoring at Southern with 1,879 points, surpassing Ashraf Amaya and Mike Glenn.
"His one-on-one ability is off the charts," said Evansville head coach Marty Simmons. "You can watch tape after tape -- watch that Indiana State tape. He's an incredibly difficult guy to defend...when he's got the ball in his hands, you want all eyes on him."
