After winning five in a row and 12 of their last 13, the Salukis (17-6, 9-3 MVC) fell to Illinois State (9-14, 4-8 MVC) in a nail-biting contest with a 72-66 final score.

Senior Marcus Domask tallied nearly half of the Dawg’s points on the afternoon, with a career-high showing of 32 total. Domask shot 52% from the field, going 13/25 on shot attempts and 6/12 from the three-point line. Lance Jones came up with most of the other points with 15, going 6-14 on field goals and 3-9 on three-point attempts. No other Saluki had more than four shot attempts on the afternoon.

The Dawgs disappointed from the free throw line, going 3/10 on attempts compared to the Redbird’s nearly perfect 17/18.

Advertisement

The teams both fought hard early, with the Redbirds slightly edging out a lead for most of the first half. A three by Domask and a jumper by senior Xavier Johnson briefly gave the Dawgs a lead at 17-16, but the Redbirds turned that around with a 10-3 run to go back up by six. Then, Domask wired in once more to give the Dawgs a chance. A three by Trent Brown gave SIU the slight lead once again, but the Redbirds locked in to get back up by three just before the break.

Coming back from the half, the Redbirds came out flying, with four straight threes to earn an 11-point lead at 48-37. The streak halted for a bit until a media timeout. Then, another Redbird three made it a 12-point lead, their most significant of the game with just under 11 to play. The maroon turned it on from there. Jones and Domask drilled three-pointers to cut the lead to six then Domask and D’Amico both came up with jumpers in the paint for a 10-point run to get it to just a two-point lead.

A Redbird dunk slowed the pace down a bit, but Domask sunk down another three to keep the deficit to just one at 57-56. It was fast-paced the rest of the way. Domask and Jones nailed two clutch three-point shots late to tie the game at 63 and 66. The Salukis had a chance to take the lead with just over a minute to play, but a foul by Jawaun Newton gave ISU the chance they needed to close the game out. A layup by the Redbirds put them up by two with 37 seconds to play, then a turnover and a foul by Xavier Johnson helped ISU ice the game with some free throws as the Redbirds took down the Salukis.

The Dawgs will try to start another win streak on Wednesday as they finish up their road trip with a matchup against Bradley (15-8, 8-4 MVC). That matchup will start with a 7 pm tip-off time.

Sports editor Joseph Bernard can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @Jojobernard2001. 

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

Advertisement*

Advertisement