By Tom Weber 

CEDAR FALLS, Iowa — The streak is over. Southern Illinois won at Northern Iowa for the first time since 2002, beating the Panthers, 56-53, after the Salukis suddenly caught fire from 3-point range at the McLeod Center on Thursday night.

Armon Fletcher in the paint in last night’s win at Northern Iowa (SIU Media Services)

After missing nine of their first 10 shots from 3-point, the Salukis (9-5, 1-0) made eight of their last 11 from long range. They also clamped down on the league’s premier center, Bennett Koch, holding him to five points on 2-of-8 shooting. The victory was SIU’s first in 12 tries at the McLeod Center and snapped a 14-game losing streak overall at UNI.

“I’d be a liar if I said it didn’t feel unbelievable,” beamed Saluki head coach Barry Hinson.

The shot that broke the ice for Southern and was a key turning point in the contest, was made by Marcus Bartley just before the end of the first half, and with his team trailing by six points. Bartley inbounded the ball to Jonathan Wiley with 5.6 seconds left, who promptly threw it back to Bartley for a trey from the left corner that cut UNI’s lead to 25-22 at intermission.

Bartley, who was questionable to play in the game due to a lower back strain, scored all 12 of his points on four 3-pointers. He caught fire during a critical four-minute stretch of the second half. Three-straight treys by Bartley turned a 35-30 deficit into a 39-35 SIU lead with 9:07 to go.

“I said at halftime, to paraphrase, do we have anybody that can step up and make a shot?” Hinson said.

Once Southern took the lead, it didn’t give it back. A swarming defense made life miserable for Koch, who committed four turnovers and played just 22 minutes. The 6-foot-10 senior was surrounded nearly every time he touched the ball, and he missed a handful of point-blank looks early that appeared to rattle him.

“They crowded the post and I think we needed to do a better job of getting it out of there sooner and stretching the floor,” said UNI head coach Ben Jacobson. “Bennett was trying so hard to score and there were two or three guys around him.”

Southern’s leading scorer on the night was Kavion Pippen, who recorded 14 points on 6-of-12 shooting, as the Panthers elected not to double-team the 6-foot-10 center.

Northern Iowa played without the league’s top 3-point shooter, Spencer Haldeman, who missed the game with a back injury. He was shooting 50 percent from three on the season, and in his absence, UNI connected on just 5-of-20 from downtown.

Meanwhile, Southern found the range in the second half as seven of their 12 baskets came from deep. They didn’t all come from Bartley, either. During one clutch sequence, Bartley shot an air ball and Sean Lloyd saved it from going out of bounds. The ball landed in the hands of Tyler Smithpeters, who drained a triple to beat the buzzer and put SIU up, 42-38.

After Northern Iowa cut the deficit to 47-45 on a layup by Klint Carlson, it was Aaron Cook‘s turn to shine. Again with the shot clock almost about to expire, he hit an off-balance 3-pointer to make it 50-45. The final dagger was a 3-pointer by Armon Fletcher that bounced high off the iron and fell through to make it 55-48 with 58 seconds to go.

Hinson credited Bartley’s 3-point barrage with opening the floodgates for his teammates.

“What it did was allow everybody else to have confidence to make a three,” Hinson said. “It was a confidence boost we really needed.”

The Panthers (8-5, 0-1) lost their third-straight game but entered the contest with the league’s best RPI because of their strength of schedule and several marquee wins.

“It took us a long time to really get anything going on offense, and unfortunately, I think that kind of set the mood for the entire night,” Jacobson said. “I didn’t think we had enough bounce in our step, enough of an edge to us, considering we were at home to open the conference season. When those two things are missing, this can happen to you and it did tonight.”

The Salukis opened conference play with a victory for just the second time in the last eight seasons. They are also expecting to add forward Thik Bol to the mix this weekend versus Drake, as the senior shot blocker has been cleared to practice and play.

“There’s no team in college basketball that’s been through what we’ve been through this year — none,” Hinson said. “We just keep talking about continue to be tough. I thought tonight we showed a lot of toughness.”

Link to the Box Score

http://siusalukis.com/boxscore.aspx?id=8025&path=mbball

By Tom Weber 

CARBONDALE, Ill. — Southern Illinois opens Missouri Valley Conference play at Northern Iowa on Thursday at 7 p.m. in a game televised on ESPN3. The Salukis are 21-7 at home all-time against Northern Iowa and 7-21 on the road. SIU is 0-11 in the McLeod Center, which opened in 2007, and has lost 14-straight overall at Northern Iowa. The last road win at UNI came on Jan. 22, 2003 under head coach Bruce Weber, an 88-78 overtime victory. Last year, the Salukis were 4-5 in MVC road games, winning at Missouri State, Evansville, Loyola and Indiana State.

Sean Lloyd Jr. named to Las Vegas Invitational All-Tournament team
G Sean Lloyd Jr. (6-5, 210, Jr.) led the team to three wins in four games during the Las Vegas Invitational and was named to the All-Tournament team. His tournament averages were 17.0 points, 4.3 rebounds, 3.2 assists, 2.0 steals, 35.5 minutes. Lloyd is the nephew of two-time MVC player-of-the-year Lewis Lloyd, who played two seasons at Drake (1980-81) and seven years in the NBA. Another uncle, Daryl Lloyd, also played at Drake and led the team in scoring in 1985 with 17.9 points per game.

Armon Fletcher against Northern Iowa at the SIU Arena last year (SIU Salukis photo)

G Armon Fletcher flourishes at hybrid forward
The Salukis unveiled a new, four-guard lineup on Dec. 13 versus Jackson State, inserting guard Aaron Cook into starting lineup in place of forward Jonathan Wiley, who had started the previous eight games. G Armon Fletcher (6-5, 207, Jr.) moved to the “hybrid four” position and has averaged 14.8 points and shot 47 percent from the field since the change. He scored a career-high 24-points against Jackson State.

Aaron Cook steps up on offense
G Aaron Cook (6-2, 185, So.) has made dramatic improvement in his offensive game as a sophomore.
2016-17    2017-18
Scoring    3.0 PPG    10.1 PPG
FG Percentage    .333    .450
3FG Percentage    .185    .400

Kavion Pippen leads team in field goal percentage, blocked shots
Juco transfer C Kavion Pippen (6-10, 240, Jr.) leads the team in field goal percentage (.585) and blocked shots (25). Pippen scored in double figures in seven-straight games to start the season. The nephew of NBA legend Scottie Pippen was named MVC Newcomer of the Week on Nov. 12 and again on Dec. 4. He had a career-high 24-point outing versus Jackson State.

Four-different players have topped 20 points
Through 13 games, the Salukis have already seen four-different players reach the 20-point mark in a game. Armon Fletcher and Kavion Pippen have done it twice, while Aaron Cook and Sean Lloyd have each done it once.

Salukis among Top 100 in three defensive categories
The Salukis rank No. 76 in the nation in field goal percentage defense (.410), No. 83 in blocked shots (4.2) and No. 93 in 3-point field goal percentage defense (.325).

Dawg Bites
•The Salukis have opened conference play with a win only once in the last seven years — at Loyola on Dec. 30, 2015.
•In the the last three games, SIU has 45 assists and only 19 turnovers.
•In the last two games, SIU is 39-of-45 (.867) from the free throw line.
•F Thik Bol (6-8, 202, Sr.) had knee surgery on Nov. 3 and is expected to return to practice when the team returns from Northern Iowa.
•G Eric McGill (6-2, 175, Jr.) injured his left hand on Dec. 17 and is out indefinitely.
•SIU has gone 95-consecutive games with at least one 3-point field goal and 1,003-consecutive games with at least one free throw (dating back to 1986).

Birthday Boys
Four players on SIU’s roster have birthdays within a two-week span of each other in December and early January —  Eric McGill (22nd), Tyler Smithpeters (26th), Aaron Cook (28th) and Thik Bol (6th).

Sean Lloyd led the Salukis with 19 points and was named to the All-Tournament team

By Tom Weber 

LAS VEGAS, NV – Southern Illinois rallied from a seven-point second-half deficit, finishing the game with a 9-0 run in the final 90 seconds, to beat Duquesne, 74-64, on Saturday at Orleans Arena.

The game featured big runs by both teams, but the Salukis (8-5) were the last men standing. SIU led, 37-30, early in the second half before Duquesne went on a 20-6 run to take a 50-43 advantage with 10:53 remaining.

All tournament team selection Sean Lloyd siusalukis.com photo

Southern battled back to tie, 53-53, on a layup by Rudy Stradnieks with 5:43 to go. Sean Lloyd then took the team on his back and scored the next six points for SIU with a pair of driving layups and two free throws to give his team a 61-57 cushion. The closest Duquesne came thereafter was 63-62 on a Tarin Smith 3-pointer. The Salukis made 9-of-10 free throws in the final two minutes and 23-of-27 in the game to secure the victory.

Lloyd, who was named to the Las Vegas Invitational All-Tournament team, led SIU with 19 points and seven rebounds and made clutch baskets when his team needed him most. He also held Duquesne’s leading scorer, Mike Lewis II, to 10 points on 4-of-12 shooting.

“I challenged Sean because yesterday we got in the mode where we went in the pity-party again,” said SIU head coach Barry Hinson. “I challenged Sean and met with him one-on-one, and I just said, if you’re going to be the leader of this ball club, be the leader of this ball club. Everybody wants you to be that guy. We rode the horse.”

Both teams were playing their second game in as many days and fatigue set in on both sides during the second half. Perimeter shots were especially hard to come by as the teams combined to make just 6-of-27 from long range. That meant points in the paint were at a premium and SIU had the advantage, 42-26, thanks to Lloyd, plus Kavion Pippen‘s 10 points and Stradnieks’ eight points off the bench.

SIU had 11 assists — six by Aaron Cook — and committed a season-low four turnovers. Meanwhile, the defense held the Dukes (9-4) to 36.5 percent shooting from the field and forced 13 turnovers.

“Not only did we execute on the offensive end, we executed on the defensive end,” Hinson said.

There were plenty of game balls to go around. Tyler Smithpeters started in place of the injured Marcus Bartley and played 37 minutes, scored nine points and had a key blocked shot of Jordan Robinson late in the game to preserve a two-point lead.

“We got the news about Marcus today and we’re just all looking at each other like — what more can we go through?” Hinson said. “The resilience of this ballclub amazes me every time.”

Besides his six assists, Cook added 12 points and ran the team effectively from the point. Armon Fletcher chipped in 12 points and made all five of his free throws.

“The last thing I told them before we came out on the floor today was what my dad used to tell me all the time, when things aren’t going right son, sometimes you have to buck up and bow your neck,” Hinson said. “I told them today was one of those days.”

The Salukis begin conference play on Dec. 28 at Northern Iowa.

By Tom Weber 

LAS VEGAS, NV — Caleb Martin buried his first five shots from 3-point distance and finished with 19 points, as Nevada cruised to an 86-64 win over Southern Illinois on Friday night at Orleans Arena.

The Wolfpack (11-2) used a devastating 25-2 run during the first half to blow open what was a close game in the opening minutes. Martin didn’t start the game but the contest shifted dramatically after he entered, as the 6-foot-7 guard made four treys during the game-changing run.

“Martin was the key for them,” said SIU head coach Barry Hinson, who saw his team’s three-game winning streak come to an end. “He was a pro. There’s a reason all these pro scouts were here.”

The Salukis (7-5) made five of their first six shots from the field and led, 14-10, with 14:07 to go in the first half. Kavion Pippen was a factor early, scoring five points for Southern, Sean Lloyd hit a three, and Tyler Smithpeters was fouled on a 3-point shot and made all three from the charity stripe.

Those were the highlights before the bottom fell out for Southern. During an eight-minute stretch in which they were out-scored by 23 points, the Salukis missed 10-of-11 shots and committed five turnovers.

Nevada’s advantage in length and athleticism was apparent on both ends of the floor. The Wolfpack shot 57 percent from the field, made 11-of-19 from long distance, out-rebounded SIU, 41-23, and had a 14-point advantage in bench scoring, thanks primarily to Martin.

“I think a lot of (our success) has to do with Caleb Martin has been willing to come off the bench,” said Nevada head coach Eric Musselman. “I thought we shared the ball, did a really good job of playing team basketball. Cody (Martin) was great at distributing the ball. We were phenomenal tonight on the glass.”

Backup Center Rudy Stradnieks has a career high 11 points in last night’s loss to Nevada.

Southern had four players score in double figures — Lloyd (12), Pippen (11), Rudy Stradnieks (11) and Aaron Cook (10), but the offense shot just 38 percent from the field, including 4-of-17 from deep.

Nevada’s only apparent weakness was the lack of a true center, and Southern had success throwing it into the post, where both Pippen and Stradnieks were effective. Pippen, however, struggled on defense and fouled out after logging just 14 minutes. He picked up his third foul of the first half when Southern was forced to put him back in to try to stop the bleeding.

“When we put him back in with two (fouls), we said they’re going to run an iso at you, you have to stay down on the ground,” Hinson said. “Sure enough, he rises up and gets the third foul. The fourth foul was the same thing, the fifth the same thing.”

Stradnieks had a career-high and the first double-figure scoring night of his career. He even buried a 3-ball.

“We told him in the timeouts, we told him coming into the game — you’re going to be a priority,” Hinson said. “We’re going to get the ball down to you low and our guys did a good job getting it to him.”

SIU’s four starting guards combined to shoot 8-of-33 from the field, and point guard Marcus Bartley played only 13 minutes before leaving the game with a lower back strain.

Although Southern struggled defensively, it managed to hold former Saluki Jordan Caroline to 13 points on 4-of-11 shooting.

“We probably know how to guard Jordan better than anybody because we had the luxury having him with us,” Hinson said.

Nevada led by as many as 28, but the Salukis kept the game from getting out of hand in the second half, unlike the team’s 42-point loss to Louisville earlier this season.

“We didn’t do what we did at Louisville,” Hinson said. “Louisville  — we just stopped competing. Tonight, we kept competing and we told them we wanted to get this thing under 20 if we could. The guys kept fighting and kept doing what we asked them to do.”

SIU returns to action tomorrow for the final game of the Las Vegas Invitational when it plays Duquesne at 5:30 p.m. Central. The game will be televised on Fox Sports 1.

By Tom Weber 

CARBONDALE, Ill. — The Southern Illinois men’s and women’s basketball teams will compete with three in-state schools for a trophy and bragging rights in a new rivalry series called the Battle for Illinois.

Introduced today by the respective athletic departments for SIU, Bradley, Illinois State and Loyola, the inaugural Battle for Illinois competition begins on New Year’s Eve, when the Illinois State women’s basketball team hosts Bradley.

The men’s and women’s basketball teams for the four universities will accrue points through head-to-head competition. One point will be awarded for each win, and each school can earn up to 12 points. In the event of a tie, the following will determine the Battle for Illinois winner: 1) Head-to-head record of the two or more teams that are tied; 2) overall regular-season record (conference and non-conference); 3) combined tournament wins; 4) average margin of victory (rivalry series games).

“This new rivalry series adds an exciting new dimension to what are already some of the best rivalries in college basketball,” said SIU Director of Athletics Tommy Bell. “Our plan is to bring the hardware home to Carbondale.”