Saluki Men’s Basketball holds off Indiana State, 74-68

Tom Weber-SIU Media Services

TERRE HAUTE, IN— Thik Bol had a career-high 19 points and Southern Illinois completed a season sweep of Indiana State with a 74-68 comeback win on Sunday.

With the victory, the Salukis (15-14, 8-8) snapped a three-game losing streak and remained in fourth place in the Missouri Valley Conference standings with two games to go. Mathematically, they also removed the possibility of playing in the Thursday night play-in game at the conference tournament.

Bol was a force on both ends of the floor. He converted 8-of-10 shots from the field on offense, while matching his career best with six blocked shots.

“That’s the best I’ve seen Thik Bol play,” said SIU head coach Barry Hinson. “It’s not the six blocked shots — it’s how many shots he altered. He got two traveling violations down there because guys were scared to put the ball up. He had relatives in the house and I wish they could come to every game.”

The 6-foot-8, 200-pound junior scored SIU’s first three baskets of the game and was the main beneficiary of Indiana State’s double-teaming of forward Sean O’Brien. After giving up 28 points to O’Brien in the first meeting between the teams, ISU was determined to limit his touches. They did — he scored 11 points — but he had a team-high six assists, and four of those went to Bol, whose defender left him to help in the double team.

“If you’re going to double (O’Brien), he’s going to make the right pass,” Indiana State head coach Greg Lansing said. “If he’s got his man by himself, he’s going to beat him or create a shot for somebody else. Then you have to keep him off the glass.”

The Sycamores (10-18, 4-12) led by as many as seven points in the game and by five points after a Brenton Scott 3-pointer with 15:32 to go. SIU countered with a 6-0 run to regain the lead. The teams traded blows with Laquarius Paige draining a couple of 3-balls and Mike Rodriguez and Sean Lloyd countering with treys for Southern.

Lloyd’s triple with 7:38 remaining put Southern up, 56-55, and it never trailed thereafter. Bol’s layup with 4:21 to stretched the lead to 65-58 with 4:21 left, but Indiana State countered with a 10-5 run, capped by a Matt Van Scyoc 3-pointer to cut the deficit to 70-68 with 30 seconds remaining. Jonathan Wiley and Rodriguez iced the victory with four free throws, and Indiana State missed a layup and had an over-and-back violation to end the game.

“Rodriguez doesn’t get enough credit,” Lansing said. “He beat us down there (in Carbondale) with a couple of late threes. This time he got to the basket a little on us.”

The game was an entertaining rematch of an overtime contest that Southern won in Carbondale on Jan. 4. SIU broke out of its offensive funk by shooting 48 percent from the field. They also out-rebounded ISU, 39-30. Indiana State had 17 assists and made 10 treys, but they shot just 57 percent from the line and 37 percent from the field in the second half.

“Any time I play a team coached by Greg Lansing, I’m really concerned,” Hinson said. “It’s just another Lansing-Hinson battle, which has come to be almost like watching Friday the 13th. It’s not really fun until the ending comes up and they show who the director was.”