By Tom Weber, siusalukis.com

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. — Southern Illinois erased a six-point deficit in the final four minutes of regulation, then won its second-straight overtime game, dropping Indiana State, 76-72, on Saturday at the Hulman Center.

The Salukis (19-10, 11-5) have lived on the edge of a dime throughout much of this conference season, but have shown a knack for making enough big plays down the stretch to get the W. The outcome of 12 of their 16 MVC games have come down to the final minutes, and today was no different.

After leading by as many as 12 points in the first half, SIU’s lead evaporated in the second half until they found themselves trailing, 63-57, with 3:54 remaining. Southern had trouble stopping dribble penetration as center Kavion Pippen and guard Marcus Bartley both fouled out of the game in regulation.

Super-sub Tyler Smithpeters of Harrisburg, goes up for two of his 11 points on the bench, with reserve center Rudy Stradnieks boxing out. (Photos by Tom Webber- SIU Salukis)

Saluki guard Aaron Cook, who led his team with 18 points, started the comeback with a pair of free throws to make it 63-59. After Brenton Scott split a pair of charity tosses for ISU, it was Tyler Smithpeters turn to go to the line for Southern. He knocked down two more to cut the deficit to 64-61 with 1:39 to go. Smithpeters, a 24-year-old senior sixth man, was superb off the bench with 11 points, a team-high seven rebounds and six assists.

Once again, missed free throws were the Sycamores’ downfall, as Jordan Barnes split a pair, allowing Southern to come down and get a pull-up jumper by Jonathan Wiley that made the score 65-63 with 58 seconds.

The defensive play of the game came on Indiana State’s next possession, as Cook swiped the ball from walk-on guard Matt Deady, which led to a breakaway layup for Sean Lloyd, tying the score, 65-65, with 15 seconds to go. Barnes took the last shot of regulation for Indiana State but came up well short at the buzzer.

“I let ’em down at the end of regulation — I didn’t have us very well organized,” admitted ISU head coach Greg Lansing. “Couple tough possessions there where you make a shot or you get to the free throw line, you probably win the game. That’s on me. We did not look like a well-coached team offensively there at the end.”

Saluki forward Jonathan Wiley gave the Dawgs 23 valuable minutes off the bench, as Center Kavion Pippen spent the day in foul trouble. Wiley had five points and seven boards.

In overtime, both teams made just two field goals, but the biggest shot was a long 3-pointer by Lloyd to give SIU some breathing room, 72-67, with 3:02 remaining. Lloyd had not made a 3-point shot for Southern since the first meeting with Indiana State on Jan. 24, but he made both of his 3-point tries today and had 13 points.

“He was in rhythm, he never hesitated, he just rose up and made it,” SIU head coach Barry Hinson said. “Players make plays.”

Indiana State misfired on several opportunities in the final minute of overtime. With his team trailing, 74-72, Barnes missed a free throw, but the Sycamores got the ball back on a 10-second violation. Barnes then missed a potential go-ahead 3-ball with 13 seconds to go. He had one more opportunity to tie the game with five seconds left, but his 3-pointer came up short.

Southern held Indiana State’s top two scorers — Barnes and Scott — to 23 points on 7-of-28 shooting. One of the league’s top 3-point shooting threats, Barnes was 2-for-11 from long range.

“Don’t let Jordan and Brenton beat you — make the other guys beat you,” Hinson said. “I thought we did a phenomenal job on Barnes and Scott, but we gave up straight-line drives to those other guys.”

The Sycamores (11-17, 6-10) lost their fourth-straight home game and their seventh game out of eight.

“I should have been doing a better job for them this year,” Lansing said. “They’re a good group that really plays hard. I’m big enough to take blame when blame is needed and a lot of these self-inflicted wounds are the head coach’s fault. I have to do better, we’ll do better, we have to stay positive.”

Meanwhile, the Salukis have won eight of nine and are still in the hunt for first place. They trail Loyola by 1.5 games pending the Ramblers’ game at Evansville on Sunday. The two teams will meet in Carbondale on Wednesday night where SIU can pick up a game in the standings if it wins.

“This is the first time in a long time we’ve had a chance to win a championship,” Hinson said. “There’s two games left and we’re two games back, but they have to come to our place. We control half of our destiny.”

Box Score

http://siusalukis.com/boxscore.aspx?id=8040&path=mbball

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. — Southern Illinois continues its conference season on Saturday when it travels to Indiana State for a 1 p.m. game televised live on ESPN3. The Salukis have a five-game winning streak against Indiana State, having swept the season series from the Sycamores the last two seasons. Southern is 24-18 all-time against Indiana State at the Hulman Center. Head coach Barry Hinson is 21-7 lifetime against ISU, including 7-5 while at Southern Illinois.

In the first meeting between the teams in Carbondale on Jan. 24, Aaron Cook poured in a career-high 25 points and Southern Illinois held off a late ISU rally to win, 82-77. Both teams shot better than 50 percent in the second half, but the difference in the game was at the free throw line where the Salukis were 22-of-31, compared to 10-of-13 for ISU.

Armon Fletcher goes up for a dunk in a home win against Indiana State

Four Salukis average double figures
The Saluki have four players averaging double figures in scoring this season — Armon Fletcher, Sean Lloyd, Kavion Pippen and Aaron Cook. The last season this happened was in 2002-03, when Kent Williams, Jermain Dearman, Darren Brooks and Stetson Hairston were all double-figure scorers. Since 1950, there have been 13 Saluki teams that have had four or more double figure scorers.

Kavion Pippen second in scoring among MVC newcomers
Juco transfer C Kavion Pippen (6-10, 240, Jr.) ranks second in scoring (12.6) among MVC newcomers, trailing only Illinois State’s Milik Yarbrough (16.5). Pippen leads the team in field goal percentage (.560) and blocked shots (38), and has scored in double figures in all but six games this season.  The nephew of NBA legend Scottie Pippen is a four-time winner of the MVC Newcomer of the Week (Nov. 12, Dec. 4, Feb. 5, Feb. 12). He is 45-of-66 (.682) from the field in the last six games.

Armon Fletcher increases output after move to “hybrid forward”
Since the Salukis switched to a four-guard offense on Dec. 13, and moved G Armon Fletcher (6-5, 207, Jr.) to the “hybrid forward” position, the team is 14-6 and his stats have shot up.
Position    GP    PPG    RPG    FG%    3FG%
Guard    8    11.9    4.7    .460    .296
Hyrbrid    20    15.3    5.4    .512    .362
Fletcher had a career night at Valparaiso on Jan. 6 with 32 points and 14 rebounds. He made the game-winning basket at Missouri State with six seconds left, and the go-ahead 3-pointer versus Valparaiso with less than a minute left on Feb. 3.

Aaron Cook hits game-winning FTs
G Aaron Cook (6-2, 185, So.) made the game-winning free throws in overtime of Wednesday’s win over Missouri State. He hit both ends of a 1-and-1 with 4.1 seconds left to give SIU an 81-80 win. Cook has made significant improvement in his offensive game as a sophomore.
2016-17    2017-18
Scoring    3.0 PPG    10.0 PPG
FG Percentage    .333    .461
3FG Percentage    .185    .415

Dawg Bites
•The highest SIU has finished in the MVC standings in the last 10 years is 3rd (2008 and 2017). It last won the MVC title in 2007.
•The last time SIU won 11 games in conference play was 2016. The last time it won more than 11 was in 2007 (15).
•SIU has swept the series from two MVC foes so far (Northern Iowa and Missouri State). That’s the most sweeps since the 2016 team swept four opponents (Missouri State, Bradley, Drake, Indiana State).
•The Salukis need one more road win to match last year’s road win total of five. They had nine in 2016.
•Tyler Smithpeters is 12-for-25 (.480)from 3-point range during his career vs. Indiana State (8 games).
•The Salukis have out-scored their last six opponents in Points in the Paint by an average of 12.6 points per game.
•11 of SIU’s 15 conference games have been “one-possession games” (three points or less) during the final three minutes of regulation.
•SIU has shot better than 50 percent during the second half in nine of its last 10 games.
•F Jonathan Wiley has played the last two games after missing 11 games with a knee injury.
•The Salukis are 7-2 in games decided by five points or less this season.
•The Salukis are 14-1 when they hold an opponent under 70 points and 3-9 when an opponent scores 70 or more.
•SIU has gone 111-consecutive games with at least one 3-point field goal.
•The Salukis have two injured players who are out for the season — F Thik Bol and G Eric McGill.