By Tom Weber – Associate AD/Communications, SIUC
CARBONDALE, Ill. — Aaron Cook made two free throws with 4.1 seconds left in overtime to lift Southern Illinois to a dramatic, come-from-behind win over Missouri State, 81-80, on Wednesday night at SIU Arena.
The Salukis (18-10, 10-5) stayed a game ahead of Drake for second place in the Missouri Valley Conference standings and remained two games back of league-leading Loyola with three games left to play in the regular season.
“Our goal is to win a Missouri Valley championship — that’s number one — we’re hanging in there by a thread, but we’re still in it,” said SIU head coach Barry Hinson. “Our second goal is to go to postseason. When I say postseason, there’s only two tournaments that I’m referring to, whether it be the NCAA or the NIT.”
The game was another classic between two teams that traded big shots and big runs, just as they did two weeks ago in Springfield, where the Salukis won, 79-77. The hard-luck Bears (17-11, 7-8) led by 11 points early, trailed by two at halftime, rallied from five down in the final three minutes, were up by four with 2:26 to go in OT, but lost another heartbreaker.
“They kept the heat on us,” Hinson acknowledged. “We had to score every time down the floor. We didn’t have a chance where we could miss a bucket.”
Sean Lloyd had 20 second half points in SIU’s overtime win over Missouri State Wednesday night at the Arena. (Madison Case-SIU Salukis photo)
Southern was led by junior guards Armon Fletcher and Sean Lloyd, who scored 22 and 21 points, respectively. Lloyd was a beast in the second half, when he flat-out carried his team by scoring 20 of its 35 points.
“We ran a lot of sets for him, posted him up, and boy did he deliver,” Hinson said.
Fletcher came up big in OT, scoring four points in the final minute, including a driving layup with 34 seconds left that put Southern up, 79-78.
Missouri State countered, though, with an eight-foot floater by Jarred Dixon with nine seconds left and that set up the late-game heroics for Cook, who pushed the ball the length of the floor and was fouled in the lane by freshman guard Mustafa Lawrence. He calmly made both ends of a one-and-one — redeeming himself for missing four free throws in overtime a week ago in a loss at Illinois State.
“When we got back from Illinois State, he stayed in this gym until four o’clock in the morning shooting free throws,” Hinson said. “I saw the look in his eye and never doubted him once.”
A crowd of 4,285 had to hold its breath twice as SIU dodged a pair of bullets that could have cost it the game. In regulation, the score was tied, 70-70, when MSU’s Jarrid Rhodes missed a wide-open 3-pointer at the buzzer.
“Jarrid Rhodes gets a clean look to win the game — you need those to go,” said Missouri State head coach Paul Lusk. “It’s a different narrative if the shot goes in that Rhodes takes at the end of regulation.”
Again in overtime the Bears had a chance to win it at the buzzer. After Cook’s free throws, Dixon drove the length of the floor and put up a runner that fell short. Teammate Obediah Church tipped in the miss at the buzzer, but after a review, the officials determined his shot came after the clock hit 0:00.
After starting the conference season 3-4, the Salukis have won eight of their last nine.
“If we were at a high-major, this would be a national story for what they’ve done, what they’ve accomplished,” Hinson said. “I’m just a proud peacock right now. They’re giving me every ounce of energy they’ve got.”
Box Score
http://siusalukis.com/boxscore.aspx?id=8039&path=mbball
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