Southern Illinois faced off against the 3-9 Grambling State Tigers on Tuesday, Dec. 28, on their home court in the Banterra Center. The Salukis came away with a big win, 75-64.

Grambling State scored the first bucket of the game after a turn-around hook shot from the left block. The points were scored by senior forward Terreon Randolph just 20 seconds into the game.

SIU’s first points were free throws from junior guard Lance Jones at 17:51 left in the first half.

Advertisement

Southern gained momentum and jumped out to their first sizable lead of the game. The run was capped off by a three-pointer from junior forward Marcus Domask with 16:16 left in the first half to put SIU up 10-2.

The Tigers managed to score on two straight possessions, which made the score 12-6 by the time of the first media timeout, with 15:28 left in the half.

The Salukis came out of the break scoring four straight points, which gave the team their first double-digit lead of the game, 16-6. This occurred with 14:41 left in the first half after two free throws from senior forward Ben Coupet.

Domask reached double figures just seven minutes into the game. By the time of the second media timeout, 10:53 in the first, the Salukis led 19-10.

Domask continued his stellar play after being subbed out for a quick-breather. He converted an and-one layup with 8:51 left in the half to put the Salukis up 27-13. SIU held a 29-13 lead by the time of the third media timeout.

The lead remained relatively the same until the final media timeout of the first half. The Salukis led 33-21 with 3:45 on the clock.

Junior guard Trent Brown scored his first points of the year with 2:16 left in the half on a corner three. Brown was recovering from an injury that had kept him out for the season up to this point.

Advertisement*

Southern Illinois led 41-25 at the end of the first half. Domask was leading the way with 17 points.

The Tigers scored six straight points out of the break. These were finally answered by a layup from Jones to make the score 43-29 with 17:30 left in the second half.

The Salukis held a 15-point lead, 47-32, by the first media timeout of the second half. This left 15:25 left in the game.

SIU continued to lay the pressure on until the second media timeout of the second half. Southern Illinois led 55-37 with 11:04 left in the game.

Senior center J.D. Muila hoped to give the Salukis even more momentum as he pinned a block off the backboard with 9:59 left on the clock. This led to a fastbreak which forced a Grambling State foul.

The Tigers felt themselves down 20 points, 59-39, with 9:27 left in the game after two free throws from senior center Anthony D’Avanzo.

Grambling State closed the lead to just 66-52 by the final media timeout of the game with 4:01 left in the game. It seemed the game was permanently out of reach for the Tigers.

Both teams scored back-and-forth until they reached the end of the game, where the Salukis won 75-64.

Domask led all scorers with 24 points. He had also contributed seven rebounds and two blocks for the Dawgs. Coupet and Jones both had 17 and 12 points respectively.

The Salukis play their next game on Sunday, Jan. 2, against Loyola-Chicago on the road. This will be SIU’s second conference game of the season. The Ramblers made it to the Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA tournament last year.

Sports Reporter Cole Daily can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter at cdaily_de

To stay up to date on all your southern Illinois news, follow the Daily Egyptian on Facebook and Twitter

Advertisement