By Tom Weber – SIU Media Services 

CARBONDALE, Ill. — Aaron Cook poured in a career-high 25 points and Southern Illinois held off a late rally by Indiana State to win, 82-77, on Wednesday night at SIU Arena.

The Salukis (13-9, 5-4) have won back-to-back games for the first time since December and, at the halfway point of the conference season, are locked in a four-way tie for third place in the MVC standings with Indiana State, Bradley and Missouri State.

Aaron Cook (Madison CaseSIU Media Services)

Cook was on fire early, scoring 18 first-half points on four driving layups, a pair of 3-pointers and four free throws. He frequently blew past defenders on high ball screens and made acrobatic finishes off the glass.

“He’d get a head of steam and turn the corner on it,” said Indiana State head coach Greg Lansing. “We did not guard it very well in the first half.”

The Sycamores (10-11, 5-4) dug a 12-point halftime hole, surrendering a pair of 3-pointers in the final minute of the half to Armon Fletcher and Tyler Smithpeters. They played much of the half with their point guard and leading scorer Jordan Barnes on the bench with foul trouble. Barnes eventually caught fire in the second half for 18 of his team-high 23 points.

“It was just an epic guard-guard battle in the Missouri Valley Conference,” noted SIU head coach Barry Hinson.

Indiana State scored the first five points of the second half and then cut the deficit to 44-39 on a 3-pointer by Barnes with 16:55 to go. Cook promptly answered with a 3-ball for the Salukis.

“The biggest mistake we made tonight was we took the lead at halftime by 12 and our crowd decided we were going to win the game by 20,” Hinson said. “I had no visions of grandeur in my head whatsoever, none. Every game we play in this building is going down to the wire. There will be no, zero, Russian nyet, blowouts.”

SIU led, 57-52, with 9:10 remaining before going on a critical 7-0 run that started with a 3-pointer by Sean Lloyd and included free throws by Armon Fletcher and a post-up bucket by Kavion Pippen.

Every time Southern extended its lead, however, the Sycamores had an answer during a wild second half. A Barnes 3-pointer capped a 7-0 run for Indiana State that cut the deficit to 71-66 with 2:45 remaining. Fletcher then drove baseline for SIU and threw down a tomahawk jam over Brandon Murphy for a conventional three-point play to push the lead back to seven.

Marcus Bartley (Madison Case SIU Media Services)

It didn’t last. Brenton Scott made a 3-pointer and Brandon Murphy flushed home a dunk to cut Southern’s lead to 75-73 with a minute to go. Needing a bucket, the Salukis went to Fletcher in the post, where he scored over Tyreke Key to make it 77-73. A pair of free throws by Barnes trimmed it to 77-75 with 22 seconds, but Marcus Bartley made two free throws and Fletcher drew a charge on Scott to seal the victory.

Fletcher had 17 points and four assists and was 2-of-3 from 3-point. As a team, the Salukis were 8-of-17 from long range, compared to 5-of-21 for Indiana State. The Sycamores controlled the glass, though, pulling down 13 offensive rebounds.

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.

“They were a lot more aggressive and in attack mode more than we were,” Lansing said. “We were more of a jump-shooting team.”

Hinson wasn’t pleased that his defense surrendered 48 second-half points, though he noted he used the same speech to his club both before the game and at halftime.

“We absolutely just checked it in defensively in the second half,” he said. “It’s the most catatonic group I’ve been around in my life. I’ve done Vince Lombardi, I’ve done Bo Schembechler, I’ve done Bill Self, I’ve done it all. Our guys just look at me like they’re watching the last 15 minutes of Marley & Me.”