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
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