The Daily Egyptian is published by the students of SIU at Carbondale. Except during vacations and exam weeks, The Daily Egyptian is published Monday through Friday during the fall and spring semesters and TWThF during the summer semester."

Wood next guard to get crack at SIU

SIU head coach Chris Lowery knows his team's greatest strength lies in its guard play.

He doesn't deny that fact, and, at this time, doesn't feel a need to fool around with his team's balance.

The three-guard lineup of Darren Brooks, Stetson Hairston and Jamaal Tatum averages 40 points a game, more than half of the Salukis' total output.

But it has not been an easy road for the trio of guards on defense, as they have been tested nearly every game.

Aside from Hawaii's Julian Sensley and Texas-El Paso's Omar Thomas, the Salukis' biggest challenges this year have come from the backcourt.

Enter Wright State (4-4) and guard DaShaun Wood, who face the Salukis at the SIU Arena tonight.

Wood is averaging 18.3 points, 6.8 rebounds and four assists a game - all team bests - and is shooting 51 percent from the field.

Listed at a generous 6-feet-nothing and 160 pounds Wood has somehow posted nine and 13 rebound games this season.

He scorched the nets for a career-high 29 points in a loss to Akron Saturday and leads the Horizon League in scoring.

"He's probably the most prolific scorer we've seen so far," Lowery said.

But it hasn't been the main threats that have hurt SIU in its last two outings.

It wasn't Brandon Freeman who led Arkansas-Little Rock to its upset victory a week ago. It was Richard Hardman.

Hardman had been averaging just 6.8 points, but ran off 18 against the Salukis on 8-of-9 shooting.

On Saturday, it wasn't just Trey Pearson who was a thorn in the Salukis' side and kept Murray State within striking distance, but rather Darnell Hopkins.

Hopkins was averaging 7.6 points, but connected on half of his shots and finished with a team-high 21 points.

But unlike Murray State and Arkansas-Little Rock, which had, at best, two players scoring in double figures, Wright State has four offensive weapons to choose from.

Zakee Boyd, Drew Burleson and Zach Williams have taken advantage of the extra attention defenses pay to Wood.

The frontcourt tandem of Burleson and Williams average 11.8 points and 10.3 points apiece, and together rip down 11.1 rebounds a game.

Boyd is the Raiders' sixth man and also their second-leading scorer with a 13.4 point per game average. The 6-foot-5, 190-pound forward may be just as dangerous as Wood. In a Preseason NIT game at now No. 15-ranked Arizona, Boyd tied Wildcat guard Salim Stoudamire for game-high honors with a career-high 24 points in a 83-66 loss.

Wood, though, is the catalyst for everything Wright State does and is adept at coming off screens, as well as getting in the lane.

Stopping him will no doubt be a team effort and entail keeping the ball out of his hands, something not even the Wildcats were successful at - Wood shot 6-for-9 and finished with 18 points.

Although his effectiveness isn't necessarily dependent upon his scoring outputs, one area of concern for the Salukis is the decline in forward LaMar Owen's scoring. Owen started the season with a bang in the Las Vegas Invitational, scoring 13.7 points a game.

In the last three games, though, he has shot 4-for-14 and averaged just four points. Owen and his frontcourt mate Josh Warren have averaged seven points in the last three games. SIU won last season's game 79-73 at Wright State in the first-ever meeting between the two teams.

In that game, Wood played 24 minutes, shot 1-of-4 from the field with one point and three turnovers.

"He didn't too much last year," Brooks said. "But I heard he's gotten better, so we'll see."