Wednesday, December 1
Evansville, Ind.
6 PM
Southern Illinois University
at
Evansville
Men's Basketball opens conference play at Evansville on Wednesday
11/30/2021 | 8:41:00 | Men's Basketball
CARBONDALE, Ill. — Missouri Valley Conference basketball tips off on Wednesday with a full slate of league games, with Southern Illinois traveling to Evansville for a 6 p.m. matchup on ESPN3.
The Salukis (3-3) are coming off a 62-59 win over Alcorn State, in which they trailed by 17 points but made a furious second-half comeback to claim the victory. Junior forward Marcus Domask led the team with 24 points. In the last two games, the junior forward is shooting 54 percent from the field, 44 percent from 3-point and made all eight of his free throws.
SIU is shooting 57 percent on 2-point field goals this year, which leads the MVC and ranks 27th nationally. Junior guard Lance Jones remains the team's leading scorer (18.8 ppg) and is shooting 52 percent from the field on the season, including 33-for-42 (78 percent) on 2-point field goals this year.
All 10 MVC teams are playing one MVC game on Dec. 1 or Dec. 2, and conference play will resume in January with 17-straight MVC games.
SIU and Evansville split a pair of games last season on back-to-back days at Banterra Center. The teams are playing in Evansville for the first time since Feb. 5, 2020, a 64-60 overtime win for SIU.
SIU is 3-1 in its last four games at Evansville and 3-1 in its last four MVC openers.
Head Coach Bryan Mullins' Press Conference – 11/29/21
Opening Statement:
"We're excited to be starting conference. It's early so it's a bit different, Evansville is close to us and a great program. We split with them last year, I think they're playing really well right now – I think they just had a big win against Eastern Illinois. It's a tough challenge to go on the road, the first Valley game, it's extremely hard to win on the road in the Valley. Coach [Todd] Lickliter does a great job with his team, obviously offensively. They have good spacing, ball movement, tough physical defense that they play with. They present a lot of challenges for us, and for us we have to play better than we did on Friday night, we have to be mentally and physically ready to go for a 6pm start Wednesday night at Evansville."
On last-minute defense:
"It wasn't really anything new. I know what these guys are made of. It shows when we want to play the way we need to play, we can play at a high level. It's now the consistency factor, it's the 40 minutes, it's the possession-by-possession basis. We've got to be that type of team from the start of the game, no matter who we play. Whether it's Creighton, whether it's Alcorn, whether it's Evansville, we have to play one way and it's a challenge to these guys."
On junior Lance Jones:
"He's doing a great job finishing the basketball. It's like he's flip-flopped a little bit from last year, he shot it extremely well. Last year, he struggled a bit to finish it and he worked on that in the offseason right now in terms of his finishing, getting his body in shape. I think he's more explosive this year and he's a really good shooter. Obviously, he's not shooting the ball well from three right now, but those are going to drop. I think once he puts it all together, he's setting himself up for a great year."
On defensive effort:
"We have to be more connected. We were able to do a good job in the first game against them [Evansville] last year, and in the second game they had a lot of success against us. Obviously, Curtis had a big game against us last year at our place, but they move the ball extremely well. They have a bunch of guys who can pass it – [Shamar] Givance and [Jawaun] Newton are all-league guards in terms of abilities to create for themselves and create for others. Those are two guys who can go get one as well as give the ball to others. They have a bunch of experience, Givance is a senior, Newton is a senior, [Noah] Frederking is a grad-senior, [Evan] Kuhlman is a grad-senior, and [Antoine] Smith Jr. was the newcomer-of-the-year, he had a great MTE and another great game against Eastern Illinois."
The Salukis (3-3) are coming off a 62-59 win over Alcorn State, in which they trailed by 17 points but made a furious second-half comeback to claim the victory. Junior forward Marcus Domask led the team with 24 points. In the last two games, the junior forward is shooting 54 percent from the field, 44 percent from 3-point and made all eight of his free throws.
SIU is shooting 57 percent on 2-point field goals this year, which leads the MVC and ranks 27th nationally. Junior guard Lance Jones remains the team's leading scorer (18.8 ppg) and is shooting 52 percent from the field on the season, including 33-for-42 (78 percent) on 2-point field goals this year.
All 10 MVC teams are playing one MVC game on Dec. 1 or Dec. 2, and conference play will resume in January with 17-straight MVC games.
SIU and Evansville split a pair of games last season on back-to-back days at Banterra Center. The teams are playing in Evansville for the first time since Feb. 5, 2020, a 64-60 overtime win for SIU.
SIU is 3-1 in its last four games at Evansville and 3-1 in its last four MVC openers.
Head Coach Bryan Mullins' Press Conference – 11/29/21
Opening Statement:
"We're excited to be starting conference. It's early so it's a bit different, Evansville is close to us and a great program. We split with them last year, I think they're playing really well right now – I think they just had a big win against Eastern Illinois. It's a tough challenge to go on the road, the first Valley game, it's extremely hard to win on the road in the Valley. Coach [Todd] Lickliter does a great job with his team, obviously offensively. They have good spacing, ball movement, tough physical defense that they play with. They present a lot of challenges for us, and for us we have to play better than we did on Friday night, we have to be mentally and physically ready to go for a 6pm start Wednesday night at Evansville."
On last-minute defense:
"It wasn't really anything new. I know what these guys are made of. It shows when we want to play the way we need to play, we can play at a high level. It's now the consistency factor, it's the 40 minutes, it's the possession-by-possession basis. We've got to be that type of team from the start of the game, no matter who we play. Whether it's Creighton, whether it's Alcorn, whether it's Evansville, we have to play one way and it's a challenge to these guys."
On junior Lance Jones:
"He's doing a great job finishing the basketball. It's like he's flip-flopped a little bit from last year, he shot it extremely well. Last year, he struggled a bit to finish it and he worked on that in the offseason right now in terms of his finishing, getting his body in shape. I think he's more explosive this year and he's a really good shooter. Obviously, he's not shooting the ball well from three right now, but those are going to drop. I think once he puts it all together, he's setting himself up for a great year."
On defensive effort:
"We have to be more connected. We were able to do a good job in the first game against them [Evansville] last year, and in the second game they had a lot of success against us. Obviously, Curtis had a big game against us last year at our place, but they move the ball extremely well. They have a bunch of guys who can pass it – [Shamar] Givance and [Jawaun] Newton are all-league guards in terms of abilities to create for themselves and create for others. Those are two guys who can go get one as well as give the ball to others. They have a bunch of experience, Givance is a senior, Newton is a senior, [Noah] Frederking is a grad-senior, [Evan] Kuhlman is a grad-senior, and [Antoine] Smith Jr. was the newcomer-of-the-year, he had a great MTE and another great game against Eastern Illinois."
Players Mentioned
F
/ Men's Basketball
G
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