The Banterra Center was the place to be on Wednesday, Jan. 22 as Saluki Basketball faced off with the rival Murray State Racers (MSU) for the first time this season.
The packed arena, thanks in part to several hundred high school students via Ag Night as well as the annual Greek life night, was filled with the contagious energy that only a heated rivalry can provide all through SIU’s 74-64 loss to the Racers.
Advertisement
The fire, which has burned ever since a brawl in Carbondale following Murray State’s loss in early 2023, was only stoked by former Saluki AJ Ferguson’s revenge game, in which he had an efficient 22 points.
A very closely contested first half had the teams trading leads three times over the course of the half, and neither ahead by more than six through 20 minutes. While the Salukis held the lead for a majority of the first half, a push by the Racers in the waning minutes had the home team down at the break.
Jarrett Hensley led the Salukis in the points column in the first half with 11, including two three pointers, the only SIU triples of the half. The three point shots were a big problem for the Salukis all night and on both sides of the ball. By the final buzzer, SIU was 3-20 from beyond the arc for a dreadful 15%, while MSU was 5-18.
Advertisement*
“We just chuck it instead of putting it on the floor and going after them like they did us.” Coach Scott Nagy said.
The teams continued the back and forth affair early in the second half. This was the case until the Racers started pulling away from the Dawgs.
Around the 10 minute mark, MSU began a 12-2 run that ate up over three minutes of the clock and gave the visitors a double digit lead, a lead that SIU was unable to dig themselves out of.
A lot of things went wrong for the Salukis; the Dawgs were out rebounded 36-30, they turned the ball over five more times than the Racers and they gave up 13 second chance points to eight.
“Anything that had to do with physicality, we lost.” Nagy said.
The Racers big second half was primarily headlined by Ferguson scoring 16 of his game-leading 22 points on the other side of the break. The Racers also got complementary nights from Ellington, with 14 points and seven rebounds, and Jacobi Wood, who put up nine and assisted on seven Racer buckets.
For the Dawgs, Ali Dibba and Kennard Davis did the majority of the dirty work, dropping 21 and 20 and six and seven rebounds respectively.
The loss ended SIU’s three game winning streak as the Salukis fell to 8-12 on the year and 3-6 in Missouri Valley play.
The Salukis will be back in action on the road this Saturday as they head up north to take on the Flames of the University of Illinois Chicago.
Sports Reporter Nick Pfannkuche can be reached at [email protected]. To stay up to date on all your southern Illinois news, be sure to follow The Daily Egyptian on Facebook and X @dailyegyptian.
Advertisement