Recap | Salukis Knock Off Illinois State in Blackout Cancer Game, 69-66

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CARBONDALE, Ill. – Southern Illinois won its 11^th game inside the Banterra Center Saturday night, defeating Illinois State 69-66, in SIU's annual Blackout Cancer game.

The Salukis were able to stave off a late Illinois State rally to improve to 16-9 overall and into sole possession of fourth place in the Missouri Valley Conference standings at 8-6 in League play.

Southern Illinois led all but 50 seconds in the game and built up a 15-point lead in the second half after reeling off a 9-2 run near the midway point of the second. Scottie Ebube, who scored 10 points off the bench for the Salukis, extended SIU's lead to 13 with a cutting dunk at the 4:31 mark.

Illinois State (11-14, 5-9 MVC) would make things interesting as they went on a 12-2 run to end the game, including an and-one triple from Malachi Poindexter and six points from Kendall Lewis.

True freshman Kennard Davis Jr. drained two free throws with 0.5 seconds left to close the win for SIU.

"We were able to fight through some adversity there in the second half," head coach Bryan Mullins said. "I thought the first 25 or 30 minutes we played some good basketball. The last four or five minutes we allowed them to get some confidence and we didn't execute as well as we needed to offensively, but we made some big plays down the stretch to get the win."

All eight Salukis who saw the floor scored as SIU was able to outscore Illinois State's bench, 20-2.

"I thought our bench did a great job tonight," Mullins said. "Scottie (Ebube), Jarrett (Hensley), and Moo (Kennard Davis Jr.) all contributed big minutes for us and were a huge piece of tonight's success."

After shooting 63.6 percent (14-22) from the floor in the first half, SIU was held to just 39.9 percent (11-28) in the second half. The Redbirds were able to hold the SIU to just 1-for-11 from behind the arc in the final 20 minutes with the line triple coming from AJ Ferguson who led the Salukis with seven second-half points.

"Sometimes we got layups, and we missed them, sometimes we got open threes, and we missed them," Mullins said of the second-half shots. "You're really coaching the process and not so much the result in terms of the execution piece of it. You want to be able to get good shots on offense and I thought overall we did that, and we took care of the ball."

SIU was able to assist on 15 of their 25 made baskets with Xavier Johnson falling an assist shy of tying his career high with nine dimes in the game to lead all players.

Johnson led the Salukis with 17 while Ebube had 10. Clarence Rupert and Trent Brown each tallied eight points in the win.

Southern allowed just four offensive rebounds to the Redbirds as Ebube led the Salukis with seven rebounds to go with his 10 points. Ferguson and Jarrett Hensley had five boards each.

Myles Foster led Illinois State with 17 points while Poindexter had 16 for the Redbirds. Former Saluki Dalton Banks scored seven, had six rebounds and dished four assists.

UP NEXT
The Salukis are set to travel to Nashville for a Wednesday evening meeting with Belmont. Tip is set for 6:30 p.m. from the Curb Event Center. The game will air on ESPN Plus.

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