DES MOINES, IA— Southern Illinois closed the game on a 14-2 run to pull out a 78-67 come-from-behind win over Drake on Tuesday night and extend its winning streak to four games.
The Salukis (15-9, 7-4) are in the midst of their longest winning streak in two years and took sole possession of second place in the Missouri Valley Conference standings. Aaron Cook led SIU with 18 points and scored eight of them during the game-winning run.
With five minutes left in the contest and his team trailing, 65-64, Cook drained a 3-pointer from the top of the key. Drake’s Reed Timmer briefly tied the game, 67-67, with 4:19 to go, but SIU scored the game’s last 11 points. Two of the biggest buckets were acrobatic driving layups by Cook that pushed the lead to six, 73-67, and took the wind out of Drake’s sails.
“It was just a high ball screen that they ran late, in which we had done a great job all night for the most part guarding that action, and we were just not able to do it,” said Drake coach Niko Medved.
After starting the league season 4-0, the Bulldogs (12-12, 6-5) have lost five of their last seven. They trailed by as many as 12 points in the first half and by seven at halftime before storming back to take their first lead, 45-43, on a 3-pointer by Ore Arogundade with 16:49 to go.
Timmer, Drake’s All-Conference senior guard, broke out of a recent scoring slump with 22 points and sent SIU guard Marcus Bartley to the bench with four fouls early in the second half. When Saluki big man Kavion Pippen picked up his fourth foul with 10 minutes to go and the game tied, the outlook seemed bleak for the visitors.
“Drake has the unique capability of getting behind and coming back, which they showed in the second half,” said SIU head coach Barry Hinson. “They are such a prolific scoring team at all spots. The way the game was officiated tonight, they really took advantage of it.”
Armon Fletcher drives the lane Tuesday’s night’s win against Drake. (Madison Case, SIU Sports information.
There were 12 lead changes and seven ties in the second half in a see-saw battle that looked destined to go down to the wire. Pippen was a force inside for Southern with 14 points. Another key factor in SIU’s 42-16 advantage in points in the paint was backup center Rudy Stradnieks, who made all four of his first half shots to finish with eight points. Tyler Smithpeters continued his clutch play off the bench with 12 points, and Armon Fletcher hit a couple of big buckets down the stretch and finished with 11.
“We came in here with the thought process that we’re just going to be in a fight,” Hinson said. “It doesn’t surprise me. I’m only disappointed in one thing, how we started the second half.”
Southern’s defense led to 17 Drake turnovers, including four key miscues in the game’s final minutes that swung the tide in SIU’s favor.
“I thought we were really careless with the ball in transition tonight,” Medved said. “I think we tried to do a little bit too much at times.”
The Salukis avenged an earlier home loss to Drake to split the season series with the Bulldogs.
“At the four-minute mark, we just blatantly challenged them,” Hinson said. “We said it’s all about us. We talked about getting in a foxhole and just finishing it ourselves and doing what we have to do to win the game.
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