From Tom Weber, SIU Sports Information 

CARBONDALE, Ill. — Southern Illinois hosts Bradley on Sunday at 3 p.m. in a key Missouri Valley Conference matchup as the season enters its final two weeks. With five regular-season games left, seven teams are separated by two games or less in the league standings. At 8-5, the Salukis are both two games out of first place and two games out of eighth place. Meanwhile, the Braves are 7-6 and hoping to sweep the season series and move into a tie with SIU for second place.

Team leader and hybrid guard/forward Armon Fletcher in the game at Carver Arena earlier in the year (SIU Sports Information photo)

SIU has dominated the series since 2002 by a 24-13 margin. The Salukis have won the last four meetings between the schools at SIU Arena — all by double figures and by an average of +13.5 points. Head coach Barry Hinson is 16-13 lifetime against the Braves, including 5-6 during his tenure at SIU.

Bradley won the first meeting between the schools, 68-62, on Jan. 9 in Peoria. The Salukis never led in the second half and trailed by as many as nine points, but four times they cut the deficit to one. Bradley closed the game on a 7-2 run in the final minute.

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 (12.3) among MVC newcomers, trailing only Illinois State’s Milik Yarbrough (16.4). Pippen leads the team in field goal percentage (.548) and blocked shots (33), and has scored in double figures in all but six games this season. The nephew of NBA legend Scottie Pippen is a three-time winner of the MVC Newcomer of the Week (Nov. 12, Dec. 4 and Feb. 5). He is 23-of-31 (.741) from the field in the last three 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 12-6 and his offensive numbers have shot up.
Position GP PPG RPG FG% 3FG%
Guard 8 11.9 4.7 .460 .296
Hyrbrid 18 15.2 5.3 .516 .355
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 sparks win streak

During SIU’s recent five-game winning streak, G Aaron Cook (6-2, 185, So.) led the team in scoring at 15.1 points per game. 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 .464
3FG Percentage .185 .395

Tyler Smithpeters from deep

A 24-year-old senior who took a medical redshirt last season, G Tyler Smithpeters (6-4, 203, Sr.) ranks No. 10 all-time at SIU in 3-pointers with 136. The Salukis are 26-17 when Smithpeters makes multiple 3-pointers in a game, including 9-5 this season. Averaging 7.5 points and starting only four games, he is a top candidate for the Sixth Man award.

Dawg Bites

•Ten of SIU’s 13 conference games have been “one-possession games” (three points or less) during the final three minutes of regulation.
•In MVC games, SIU has scored 897 points and allowed 895 points.
•The Salukis are 6-2 in games decided by five points or less this season.
•SIU has shot better than 50 percent during the second half in seven of its last eight games.
•Armon Fletcher has scored double figures in 12-straight games. He’s averaging 15.4 points in MVC games, compared to 8.9 a year ago.
•The Salukis are 13-1 when they hold an opponent under 70 points and 3-9 when an opponent scores 70 or more.
•SIU has gone 109-consecutive games with at least one 3-point field goal.

By Tom Weber, SIU Sports Information 

NORMAL, Ill. — Illinois State extended its winning streak to four games and moved into a tie with Southern Illinois for second place in the Missouri Valley Conference with a 76-68 overtime win over the Salukis on Thursday night.

The Redbirds (14-11, 8-5) played without injured point guard Keyshawn Evans, and then lost star forward Phil Fayne to an ankle injury late in the game, but still had enough firepower to extend their home winning streak over SIU to 11 games.

ISU’s bench out-scored SIU’s bench, 38-9, as several players deep in the rotation had career nights. Freshman Elijah Clarence had 15 points and juco transfer William Tinsley added 14.

“We wanted to shut down (Milik) Yarbrough, we wanted to shut down Fayne, and those other guys stepped up and give them credit,” said SIU head coach Barry Hinson.

Aaron Cook Plowing past an Illinois State defender in SIU’s overtime loss last night (Tom Weber, SIU Sports information)

The Salukis (16-10, 8-5) saw their five-game winning streak come to an end and they dropped two games behind Loyola in the league standings with five games left to play. Three players scored 14 points apiece — Sean Lloyd, Armon Fletcher and Kavion Pippen.

Southern will look back at some of the what-ifs late in regulation.

After Illinois State pushed the lead to nine, 50-41, the Salukis countered with a 7-0 run. It started with a conventional three-point play by Fletcher off a fast break. Pippen then a post-up bucket. A steal by Bartley led to a fast break in which Lloyd made the follow-up bucket off a Fletcher missed dunk.

The game was nip-and-tuck the rest of the way. Marcus Bartley’s 3-pointer for SIU cut the deficit to 55-54 with 7:30 to go. The Salukis took their first lead of the second half when Tyler Smithpeters buried a 3-ball to make it 57-56 with 5:14 left.

Meanwhile, the Redbirds were self-destructing on the offensive end of the floor. They committed five turnovers down the stretch, and Yarbrough finished the game with nine turnovers and was pulled for the final three minutes of regulation.

“He was (SIU’s) best player for a stretch there,” deadpanned ISU head coach Dan Muller. “I had to get him out. He was just a turnover machine.”

Kavion Pippen going up for the one hander in last night’s loss. Pippen led the Salukis along with Sean Lloyd and Armon Fletcher with 14 points. (Tom Weber, image.)

A layup by Pippen put Southern ahead, 64-61, with 1:26 to go. After Matt Hein turned it over for ISU, the Salukis had a golden opportunity to ice the win, but Armon Fletcher missed a three from the corner with 47 seconds.

Freshman forward Taylor Bruninga converted a conventional three-point play for Illinois State to tie it, 64-64, with 34 seconds left.

On Southern’s next possession, Smithpeters missed everything on a 3-point try, leaving ISU with 4.8 seconds to try to win it in regulation. Clarance dribbled into the front court, had it stripped by Aaron Cook, whose heave at the buzzer nearly went in.

Illinois State scored the first four points of overtime on a N’Diaye free throw and a 3-pointer by Matt Hein. They stretched the lead to six when Hein was fouled on a 3-pointer with 51.9 seconds left and made all three to give ISU a 72-66 lead. The Salukis never came any closer.

“We put ourself in a position to win on the road and they made a big basket,” Hinson said.

“We’re still in second place. Now we need a little help from someone to beat Loyola.”

Box Score

http://siusalukis.com/boxscore.aspx?id=8037&path=mbball

NORMAL, Ill. — Southern Illinois plays at Illinois State on Thursday night in a pivotal Missouri Valley Conference matchup between two teams near the top of the league standings. The Salukis have won five in a row and are currently in second place, one game ahead of the Redbirds, who have won three straight.

SIU Coach Barry Hinson said in his pregame comments that Jonathan Wiley could be back before the MVC Tournament maybe sooner, even though far from 100%. This will provide much needed depth inside for the Salukis.

In the first meeting on Jan. 13, SIU trailed by as many as 14 points before rallying to beat Illinois State, 74-70. It was the biggest comeback since rallying from 18 points down to beat Sam Houston State on Nov. 21, 2015. In the recent series between the schools, SIU has lost its last 10 games at Redbird Arena. The last victory in Normal came during the 2006-07 Sweet 16 season.

Southern Illinois is aiming for its first six-game winning streak since the 2015-16 season. The last time SIU won six-straight conference games was when it won 10 in a row during the 2006-07 Sweet 16 season. During the current winning streak, SIU is shooting .529 from the field and .415 from 3-point, while averaging 73.6 points per game.

Head coach Barry Hinson met with the media after Wednesday’s practice.

Madison Williams didn’t play the last time you faced Illinois State — what does he bring to the table?
He’s extremely athletic, he’s a threat on offense by the way he penetrates and he’s a threat on defense on the way he gets steals. I would suspect he’ll be really up for this game. I think they’ll all be up for this game. The thing that we tried to express to our team today, if (Illinois State) wins this game, they’re in second place and trying to win a conference championship. Our focus is literally one game at a time. We don’t talk about where we are or what we’re doing, we just want to beat Illinois State. We’ve watched an enormous amount of film on Williams because we didn’t see him last time, to try to get our guys ready for him.

Phil Fayne was 11-of-12 from the field last time. Is Armon Fletcher‘s size enough to defend him or does he need help?
Armon can’t guard Fayne and that’s no disrespect to Armon, you have to have a bigger, stronger guy. This is going to be a huge game for Kavion (Pippen). We have to do a good job on (Fayne). Our leading offensive rebounder has 21 rebounds, Fayne has 41. This guy’s a man. He certainly gave us problems when he was here and he’s giving everybody problems in the league. He certainly has our attention.

Is the five-game winning streak a huge advantage going into Illinois State?
No. I think it helps us confidence-wise, but I don’t think there’s been anything that’s given us any advantage going into Illinois State — we’ve proven that the last 10 years. Our whole deal is we understand the streak, we understand what’s happened up there in the past, but our focus is far past that. We want to focus on what we do defending, what we do rebounding-wise and execution on offense. We didn’t play really well against Valpo, and give them a lot of credit for the way they played us, but we have to get back to playing much like we did at Drake and like we did at Missouri State.

Illinois State will be without Keyshawn Evans. How does that affect the gameplan?
It bothers me. I don’t mind telling you, I don’t like playing against any team when there’s an injury and you’re the first team they play. I don’t like it, never have. Whenever we lose somebody, next game, everybody steps up. We’ve always played well the next game directly after a loss, so I don’t like it at all. There’s a sense of urgency, there’s an alarm that goes off that everybody has to step up their game. If you catch that team on the second or third game it’s a little bit different, but not the third game. I don’t think it’s an advantage, I think it’s a disadvantage.

Comment on Illinois State’s three-headed monster being down to two (Fayne and Yarbrough).
We understand what we have to do against Fayne. We know that (Milik) Yarbrough can easily go for 30 at any time. He didn’t have one of his best games here, so we know we’re going to get his best shot tomorrow night.

Why is your team playing better? 
I think there’s several variables. Because of our limited rotation, guys know they’re going to play. Guys have confidence. We get along. I think we have as high-character a group as we’ve had in quite some time. I think they’re buying in to what we’re doing. If you notice how we come out of timeouts, whether it be offensively or defensively, these guys are focused and are executing to a T. I give the credit to the players. They really like each other. They challenge each other. I don’t think you can have a good season or a good team unless your veterans are playing like veterans.

Is it possible we’ll see Jonathan Wiley at the MVC Tournament?
Yes. I hope earlier. He is rehabbing on land right now, on a hard-court surface. This has the story to be almost shy of a miracle. He is not healthy, he won’t be healthy, but he wants to play, there is no quality of life issue. We don’t think he can do anymore damage because he’s torn it pretty much up. It will be limited to how much pain he can play with, but he wants to play, and who am I or who is anyone to deny him this opportunity? My biggest question is quality of life, and there is no quality of life issue at this point, so we hope to put him in a uniform as soon as possible.