Making it count

SIU winning ugly and dramatically, but winning just the same

Two games. Two points. Two miracles.

Two victories.

It was not pretty, but SIU managed to win two road games in only three days during the weekend to remain in a first-place tie with Creighton. It also brought Southwest Missouri State down to earth, pushing the upstart Bears into third.

The victories were not easy or aesthetically pleasing. Some might even call them ugly. But they were wins nonetheless, and head coach Bruce Weber was glad to have them, even if he thinks SIU does not deserve them.

The Salukis turned the ball over 18 times during Saturday's win over SMS and relied on missed free throws down the stretch to defeat ninth place Drake. The Bulldogs, normally a 72 percent free throw shooting team, put down only 15 of 24 from the charity stripe against the Dawgs.

The bright side of the mind-numbingly close games has been the invaluable experience and character the team has gained - without having to pay for it with a loss.

"Every time you win a close game it benefits your team," said senior Kent Williams, who won the SMS game by sinking a lay-up with 1.4 seconds remaining. "For one, you get the experience of being in close games, and the more you get in, the more comfortable you feel."

Senior forward Jermaine Dearman said teams learn the importance of every possession in close games such as the ones his team played last week.

"Keep plugging away; everything counts at that point," Dearman said. "Every little loose ball, every foul, every tip shot, every rebound, everything counts."

Despite the experience gained from the victories, the team said it would like to blow someone out for a change.

Williams said he would rather win by 10 or 15 points than only one, and Dearman echoed similar remarks, citing fan sanity as a reason to expand the win margin.

"It's kind of good and bad," Dearman said of the team's cardiac games. "In a good way, you get the experience of being in tight situations. But in a bad way, it can get a little stressful for the coaching staff, for us and also for the fans watching the games."

The team would also like to rely a little less on luck, something that has been an asset to the Salukis the entire conference season. SIU lucked into overtime to defeat Northern Iowa, squeaked by Bradley and were the beneficiaries of missed free throws and bricked last second shots the past two games.

The only close game the Salukis have lost this season was to non-conference Illinois-Chicago in mid-December.

Though he acknowledged his team has received some cosmic help this season, Willaims said good teams make their own luck.

"We have had some breaks. Sometimes that's just the way it falls," Williams said. "But luck kind of goes with hard work. I think we've been playing pretty hard and we practice hard."

After the SMS game, Weber said his team was lucky to leave Springfield, Mo., without a loss and in first place. Weber said everything SIU does this season leads to its March 1 match-up with Creighton.

But if the team continues to play the way it did last week, junior Brad Korn jokingly expressed concern his coach may not make it. "It's huge," Korn said after defeating SMS. "We're probably killing coach with these close games."

Reporter Michael Brenner can be reached at mbrenner@dailyegyptian.com