Salukis win battle of the Dawgs

SIU men's basketball beats Drake 65-64 to remain in first place tie with Creighton

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Saluki fans have seen this many times before.

Senior guard Kent Williams goes to the free throw line for a crucial shot in the final seconds of a close game.

SIU's biggest clutch player takes aim and fires the shot - and misses?

That is what happened with 20 seconds remaining in Thursday night's Missouri Valley Conference game against Drake at the Knapp Center in Des Moines, Iowa.

Drake grabbed the rebound and went up the floor looking for the game-winning basket.

Bulldog star guard Luke McDonald had the ball with six seconds remaining, drove and put up the potential game winner, which he missed.

SIU sophomore guard Stetson Hairston grabbed the rebound and dribbled out the final seconds as the Salukis escaped town with a 65-64 victory.

The Salukis (15-4, 10-1 MVC) trailed for a good portion of the second half before retaking the lead on a lay-up by senior forward Jermaine Dearman, who scored 10 of his 16 points in the second half, with about two minutes left in the game. Brad Korn was the Salukis' second leading scorer with 11 points.

With the 16 points, Dearman moved into 17th place all-time past Chris Carr in the SIU record books in scoring with 1,255 points in his career.

The Bulldogs (7-14, 2-8 MVC) were led by their inside combination of Greg Danielson and J.J. Sola who scored 40 of Drake's 64 points. McDonald, who was a game-time decision because of an injury, chipped in nine points on three clutch three-point shots.

On the postgame radio show, SIU head coach Bruce Weber said the Salukis simply weren't playing solid defense against Danielson and Sola and that is why they were able to run wild in the post.

"I don't mind if they get the ball inside and they do booty-ball and they score on you," Weber said, "but we gave them too many open little easy looks by just bad awareness, not seeing the ball, not having your knees bent. Just a variety of things broke down at different times."

The teams went in at halftime tied at 32-32 and they traded baskets for a few minutes before the Bulldogs went on a 14-3 run to build a 51-45 lead and were in control of the game until Dearman put the Salukis back on top.

Now the Salukis have just one day to rest before their next game Saturday against Southwest Missouri State in Springfield, Mo.

SIU has yet to play the Bears this season, but the game will be of huge importance as far as the MVC race goes as SMS sits at 9-1 in conference play.

Making the Bears success more remarkable is that the Bears were picked to finish eight in the preseason poll and lost four senior starters from last year's team.

Earlier this week, Weber said he thinks the key to their success is the way SMS head coach Barry Hinson has been able to mesh his newcomers with his returning players.

"They're doing it with defense, they're doing it by winning close games, making big plays so you've got to give them a lot of credit," Weber said. "Every year there's one team in the league that seems to do that and this year they're the surprise team."

If the Salukis are able to escape SMS with a win they will start separating themselves from the rest of the MVC and keep rolling toward their goal of a conference championship.

Reporter Jens Deju can be reached at jdeju@dailyegyptian.com