Salukis Roll Past Purple Aces Behind Balanced Attack

Thursday, February 12

Carbondale, IL

7:00 PM

Southern Illinois University

12-14,6-9MVC

Evansville

6-20,2-13MVC

Evansville

Southern Ill.

Davion Sykes

Photo by: Abby Harris

02/12/2026 | 10:32:00 | Men's Basketball

Box Score

By: Jordan Kruse, SIUSalukis.com

CARBONDALE, Ill. - A 22-0 run early in the game paved the way for Southern Illinois to breeze past Evansville by a score of 86-60 Thursday night in Carbondale. All five starters scored in double figures, the second straight game Southern had five players hit the mark.

The Salukis led 11-9 with 15:12 remaining in the first half before Southern's run, where Rolyns Aligbe splashed four threes, tying his career-high for the third time this season. That stretch aided his team-leading 18 points on the night.

"The second four minutes we were great defensively," Head Coach Scott Nagy said about the run. "And then obviously we shot the ball well."

When the run ended, there were still nine minutes left in the first half, but the Purple Aces were resilient, scoring 23 of the next 33 points to close the gap to 11 at the half.

Despite a boost in confidence, Evansville could not get the deficit within 10 in the second half. The Aces were keeping pace to start, and trailed by 12 with 7:50 to go before the SIU defense stepped up to allow just two UE points over the next four minutes.

Southern's lead stretched as high as 28, and eventually closed it out with an 86-60 win for its second win in a row, the first time they have won back-to-back games since early January.

Sophomore Drew Steffe had a big night on the stat sheet with 14 points and a season-high seven rebounds. He spoke about his team getting into a good flow late in the season.

"It took a minute to know exactly on the court what we're looking for," Steffe said. "But I think we're finally in to that point I think we can go even further."

The Salukis improve to 12-14 overall and 6-9 in conference play.

UP NEXT
Southern will try to tally its first three-game win streak of conference play when it hosts Bradley on Sunday at 1 p.m.

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