Hot-shooting SEMO tops Saluki Men’s Basketball, 75-69

By Tom Weber – siusalukis.com

CARBONDALE, IL — SEMO built a 22-point first-half lead and then held off a late rally by Southern Illinois to win, 75-69, on Saturday night in a non-conference matchup.

The Redhawks (6-4) won for the first time at SIU Arena since 1982 behind a lethal 3-point shooting attack. Six different players made treys and 12 of their 22 field goals came from long range. Leading the barrage was sophomore guard Denzel Mahone, who scored 18 points and connected on 3-of-4 shots from outside the arc.

The Salukis (4-4) were ice cold during the first half, missing eight-straight shots from long range during one stretch as SEMO sprinted to a 37-15 lead with 3:26 remaining. SIU finally came to life with a 10-2 run to end the half, culminating with a buzzer beater by Tyler Smithpeters just a few steps past midcourt.

“I came off the floor (at halftime), especially after Tyler (Smithpeters) three, I really felt we were still going to win the ballgame,” said SIU head coach Barry Hinson.

Southern’s comeback started when Hinson pulled 6-foot-10 center Kavion Pippen from the game and went with a five-guard lineup to better defend the perimeter.

“I thought when they went small and subbed Kavion Pippen out of the game, that was a win for our team,” said SEMO head coach Rick Ray.

The Salukis had no choice because Pippen couldn’t keep up with SEMO 6-foot-7 forwards Milos Vranes and Isaiah Gable, who combined to make five 3-pointers. The Redhawks lost both of their centers during the past week when Mark Laros came down with mono and Justin Carpenter sustained a concussion in practice.

“Ball-screen pick and pop — we wanted Kavion Pippen to have to guard the 3-point line,” said Ray, explaining his strategy to offset the loss of his post players. “We asked our guys to get two more defensive rebounds than they normally get.”

Hinson said it was the first time he’s ever played a five-guard lineup.

“We were caught off-guard by their starting lineup,” he said. “We felt like (playing five guards) was the only way we could get back in the game and it later proved that it was.”

As cold as the Salukis were in the first half, they suddenly found their range in the second. Led by Aaron Cook, who finished with 18 points off the bench, SIU made 9-of-15 treys in the final 20 minutes in a frantic bid to climb out of the deep first-half hole.

Several times, Southern cut the deficit to single digits, but SEMO always had an answer. The Salukis came as close as 59-54 on a dunk by Armon Fletcher with 5:52 remaining in the contest, but Mahoney countered with a triple, and SEMO eventually pushed the lead back to 14 points with two minutes left.

“We’ve only got four guys that have played Division I college basketball,” Ray said. “We need to be able to count on (Mahoney) and depend on him in crucial situations.”

SEMO won its fourth-straight game, but Ray said this victory was different than the others.

“I’ve been on my team that we hadn’t beaten a quality ball club to this point,” he said. “We had yet to beat a sound, disciplined team. Watching film on Southern Illinois I thought they were excellent defensively and they never beat themselves.”

There were bright spots in the loss for the Salukis. Sean Lloyd had 15 points and was 3-for-3 from downtown. Marcus Bartley had six assists in his second game back from injury. They outscored the Redhawks by eight points in the second half.

“The only thing I was disappointed with was we let our offense determine how hard we played defense in the first half, and that bothered me,” Hinson said. “This isn’t one of those games where I come in here and tell you that we played bad, I think you have to give SEMO a lot of credit.”