 "Photo: Julia Rendleman ~ Daily Egyptian")
A familiar face to southern Illinois basketball will make his return to SIU Arena in the Salukis’ second game.
The Salukis (1-0) will look to carry over their offensive explosion from the season opener into SIU Arena tonight as they host the Indianapolis University Greyhounds at 7:05 p.m.
The game will mark the return of former director of basketball operations Aundrey Wright, who took an assistant coaching position for the Greyhounds during the offseason.
SIU head coach Chris Lowery said facing Wright and head coach Stan Gouard would be a challenge.
“Stan Gouard is one of my good friends,” Lowery said. “He was at (John A.) Logan when I played at Southern, and Aundrey Wright is there, too. We know they’re going to be ready to play us, and we’re looking forward to the challenge.”
Lowery said the team could not overlook Indianapolis, especially after its exhibition season.
Indianapolis (1-0) knocked off Division I Valparaiso 88-83 on Nov.1 during the exhibition season, as all five starters for the Greyhounds scored in double digits.
On Sunday, Valparaiso lost to the No. 6 team in the country — and the defending national champions —North Carolina by only 11 points, 88-77, in Chapel Hill, N.C.
Junior forward Carlton Fay, who led all Salukis with 18 points in the season opener, said the team would focus on themselves.
“We’re thinking good things right now,” Fay said. “Our key is defense and rebounding, and the offense will take care of itself.”
The offense will look to continue the torrid pace set during the season opener against the University of Tennessee-Martin Saturday.
The Salukis scored 91 points against the Skyhawks — the most points ever scored during Lowery’s tenure as head coach. The team shot 50 percent from the field, and made 12 of 25 from the three-point line.
Though Lowery said this might be the best shooting team he has ever had, he does not expect 91 points to be the norm.
“We feel that if we guard the way that we guard, that we can score enough points to win,” Lowery said. “That’s fine to play like that at home, but we know we can’t always shoot like that on the road, especially against good opponents. We’re going to really try to get to the low 50s to hold people.”
Sophomore Kevin Dillard, who scored 14 points in the opener, said the team will continue to take good shots, and the ball should continue to fall.
“We’ll continue what we did against UT-Martin, and hopefully the results are the same for us,” he said.
