Salukis lose OT heartbreaker at #21 Loyola

CHICAGO, Ill. - The SIU men's basketball team came heartbreakingly close to the program's first-ever true road win against a ranked MVC opponent, but #21 Loyola prevailed in overtime, 65-58 at Gentile Arena. The Ramblers won the Missouri Valley Conference regular season title.

"Give credit to Loyola. They made plays down the stretch, and that's what championship teams do," SIU head coach Bryan Mullins said. "I'm extremely proud of our guys. I love coaching this group. They battled for 48 hours against one of the best teams in the country and didn't back down at all. We never played our basketball, but we kept fighting, and that's why I'm proud of this group."

SIU (11-13, 5-13 MVC), the ninth-youngest team in the country, played without All-MVC forward Marcus Domask for a 14th-straight game and were 19-point underdogs against Loyola (21-4, 16-2 MVC), a team loaded with seniors that has been compared to the Ramblers 2018 Final Four team. Loyola jumped out to a 16-point lead, but the Salukis battled all the way back on heart and determination.

And Lance Jones. The sophomore guard scored a game-high 30 points. He scored 21 points in the second half and overtime alone, and he did it against the best defensive team in the leauge.

"I love his energy. When he's that competitive, and has that type of energy and that body language, he's always played extremely well," Mullins said. "He's such a competitive kid, when the juices get going like that, he can be a really, really good player in this league. We ask him to do a ton. Obviously, with Marcus out, the responsibility for Lance has been enormous. He has had ups and downs, but he has always come back. That's what I love about Lance. He never let it go two, three, four games where he struggled. That means he has a chip on his shoulder, and he's competitive, and he has a lot of pride. He's doing an unbelievable job with the amount of responsibility we put on him."

And defense. KenPom ranks Loyola as the nation's best defensive team, but the Salukis matched the Ramblers tonight. Steven Verplancken Jr. hit a 3-pointer at the first-half buzzer, but that only brought the Salukis within 38-25 at halftime. SIU allowed just 18 points in the second half, and held the Ramblers to 27% shooting, including 0-for-7 from the 3-point line. In the game's final 10 minutes, SIU held Loyola scoreless for six-straight minutes and turned a nine-point deficit into a one-point lead on a Jones 3-pointer with 5:18 to go.

"It says a lot about Southern Illinois -- how tough they are, how resilient they are," Loyola head coach Porter Moser said. "Bryan's personality is all over that team."

Loyola came back to take a 3-point lead, but SIU tied the game on two clutch free throws by Jones. Loyola took another lead in the final minute of regulation, but the Ramblers fouled Jones on a 3-pointer with 21 seconds left. Jones hit the first two free throws, and the third hit every piece of the iron before falling out, but SIU made the defensive stand on the other end to force overtime.

"Give credit to SIU. They're tough and didn't go away. We got it to 16, and the came back and answered," Loyola star Cameron Krutwig said. "They're a really tough team. They're really young. They're definitely going to build up a program there of toughness. There are a lot of similarities between them and us. It was a tough Valley game, and we came out on top."

SIU took a lead in overtime when Jones made a driving layup with 3:26 left, but those were the only points Loyola's stingy defense allowed in the overtime period. With the win, Loyola clinched a share of the MVC title. A few minutes later, when Drake lost at Bradley, it became an outright championship for the Ramblers.

"They have multiple guys who can beat you. That's why they're cutting down nets right now," Mullins said. "They have one of the best big guys to ever play in this conference, and they have perimeter guys who can all score 10-15 points on any given night."

For SIU, despite the result, the Salukis showed growth throughout the last month. SIU finished the regular season playing 10 games in 22 days, which included one stretch of five games in nine days. But after taking a ranked team to the wire in back-to-back days on the road, with a group of almost entirely freshmen and sophomores, SIU has to feel great about what's in store for the future of the program.

"I love this group. I think it shows character; it shows resilience," Mullins said. "For as young of a group as we have, missing as many practices as we have, missing J.D. (Muila), missing Marcus (Domask), it shows we have a lot of fight. We have guys who want to do what it takes. We're learning right now to do what it takes, but we're not backing down. We're not afraid to go out there and compete against a bunch of seniors and grad seniors, and teams that are at the top."

But first, SIU travels to St. Louis for the MVC Tournament, known as Arch Madness to Valley fans. The Salukis will be the 9-seed in the tournament and face Bradley in the first round at 5 p.m. on Thursday.The game is a rematch of last year's quarterfinal, in which Bradley narrowly escaped SIU and then went on to win the tournament title. The winner advances to face Loyola on Friday.

"We're continuing to get better. This is the first time we've had 3-4 weeks of continuity really all year," Mullins said. "There are things I notice in our defense. We're getting more connected. Offensively, when the ball moves, we're a pretty good team offensively. Our goal is always to be playing our best basketball heading into Arch Madness, and I think we are right now."

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Team Stats

Lance Jones

Anthony D'Avanzo

Steven Verplancken Jr.

Trent Brown

Players Mentioned

Marcus Domask

Lance Jones

Steven Verplancken Jr.

Players Mentioned

Marcus Domask

Lance Jones

Steven Verplancken Jr.

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