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The Salukis prevailed as the top dogs in their battle with the Greyhounds Tuesday.
SIU (2-0) kept its offense going as it defeated the Indianapolis Greyhounds 84-69 Tuesday at SIU Arena.
Even with the victory, head coach Chris Lowery said his team was sloppy throughout.
“We’re happy we won this game, but when you have 61 points on the play hard, we should have done a lot more,” Lowery said. “We made too many mistakes.”
Though they never trailed in the game, the Salukis could not find a way to put down the Greyhounds early in the game.
The teams traded baskets early, but junior forward Carlton Fay, who was named the Missouri Valley Conference’s Player of the Week, provided some needed relief off the bench.
Fay, who finished with 11 points and three rebounds in 27 minutes, made his first three-point shot attempt, then stole the ball on the next possession and dished off to senior guard Tony Freeman for the layup.
Lowery said Fay’s play does not come as a surprise.
“It’s simple; he’s a starter,” Lowery said.
Indianapolis fought back though, responding with a 5-0 run before junior guard Justin Bocot, who finished with eight points, sank one of his two three-pointers.
The Salukis did their best after the half to end the Greyhounds’ upset bid.
The Salukis went off on a 10-0 run to start the second half, including a dunk from Nick Evans and finger roll from Anthony Booker as he drove up the middle.
“I felt like in those five minutes we really established ourselves,” Bocot said.
SIU never looked back and led by as much as 15 points in the second half. But just as it did in the first half, Indianapolis did not go down without a fight.
The Greyhounds responded with a five-point run of their own, but once again Bocot was there to end the comeback attempt with his other three-pointer of the night.
Lowery said his team showed its inexperience after the big streak.
“To start the half, the first five minutes, we did a tremendous job of turning every turnover into a point,” Lowery said. “At the 10-minute mark after that, we did a poor job of being mature. We really showed our youth tonight. We tried scoring 91 points again tonight, and we didn’t defend like we did last time.”
Sophomore Kevin Dillard emerged as the leader for the Salukis, as he led all scorers with 16 points and 10 assists. His double-double was the first recorded by the Salukis this season. Dillard said he just took what the defense gave him and happened to find the open man.
Lowery said the team would need to perform better in its next game.
“We had 16 turnovers, 11 in the second half,” Lowery said. “We had a bunch of steals turn into turnovers against us.”
The Salukis will travel to Las Vegas Saturday to play their first road game of the year as they face University of Nevada-Las Vegas. Freeman said the team would need a quick start in order to compete.
“If we go out there early and have an aggressive start, I feel like we’ll do fine,” Freeman said. “If we come out with a slow start and give (UNLV) momentum at home, then it’s going to be hard to come back from that. We’ll need to establish ourselves early.”
