The Salukis gained a road win on their belt beating the Flames, 74-71,  on Saturday afternoon at Credit Union 1 Arena. With only one second left on the clock and Xavier Johnson at the free-throw line.

SIU played aggressively against the Flames, keeping the game close throughout the second half with Johnson scoring 21 points. He finished with 29.

They had 30 rebounds in total with eight defensive rebounds in the first half and 13 in the second half.

The score was tied 10-10 at 14 minutes in the first half until UIC led by five for the next few minutes. They came back near the end of the period making most of their free throws and a few good layups, getting us to 31-35 with a second chance layup made by AJ Ferguson in the last few seconds.

Only one minute into the second half SIU starts strong and quickly takes the lead with more consistent free throw shooting and a three-point jumper by Trent Brown pushing the Salukis to a seven-point lead.

The Flames weren’t that far behind them, going on an 11-0 run for three minutes. The rest of the period was point for point until the last few seconds. 

After a long timeout for consideration to see which team’s ball it would be for the last second, it was SIU’s basketball sealing the deal with two free throws from Johnson.

The Salukis will try to keep their road win streak going to Drake on Wednesday, Feb. 7 at 7:00 pm.

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Jamilah Lewis can be reached at [email protected]. To stay up to date with all your southern Illinois news, follow the Daily Egyptian on Facebook and Twitter.

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