Strong Defense Propels Salukis to Third-Straight Home Win
A strong defensive second half led the Southern Illinois men's basketball team to its third-straight victory inside the Banterra Center as the Salukis defeated Chicago State 63-52 Friday night.
"We talked about finishing this week off the right way and making sure we were ready to go with it being a little bit different type of week with a couple games and finals week," head coach Bryan Mullins said. "We got better throughout the week and as the season progresses you want to keep getting better and that's a positive for our guys and that's the goal here."
Senior Lance Jones led the Salukis with a 19-point performance, including four triples. Jones also added four rebounds, three assists and a pair of steals in the win. Marcus Domask dropped in 17 points, eight rebounds and two assists for the Salukis while Trent Brown was strong from deep with a trio of 3-pointers.
"I thought we executed well in the last four minutes of the game. I thought we took care of the ball against the press, made some free throws, and got some stops," Mullins said. "Overall, a good effort against a talented team that is playing good basketball right now."
Southern Illinois (8-4) held Chicago State to just 18 points in the final 16 minutes of action to close out the contest. Chicago State managed just four field goals during the stretch, shooting 4-for-20 from the field and just 1-for-6 from distance after connecting on seven 3-pointers in the opening half.
It was a back-and-forth game for much of the first half as Chicago State (3-10) was able to hang around thanks in part to their strong shooting, scoring 21 of their 26 points from long range. Southern was able to extend its lead to 32-26 at intermission as Lance Jones knocked down a trio of free throws after drawing a foul with a second remaining.
The Cougars took a brief lead four minutes into the second half before Southern was able to regain control with an 18-7 run to take a 10-point lead. The Salukis closed the game out strong hitting all six free throw attempts.
Clarence Rupert put together another strong outing with eight points and eight rebounds. The big man brought the energy for the Salukis defensively with a season high three blocked shots.
Dalton Banks and Jawaun Newton recorded five and two points respectively but were game-changers for the Salukis with each tallying plus-20 or better on the stat sheet.
The Salukis won the rebounding, points in the paint, second chance and fast break battles in the win. As a team, SIU shot 41.3 percent (19-46) from the field while holding CSU to 27.5 percent (14-51). SIU knocked down 16-of-19 from the charity stripe while CSU was 15-of-20 from the line.
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