The SIU men’s basketball team had one of their best games of the season from beyond the 3-point line in their 68-59 Wednesday victory over the Evansville Purple Aces.
Nearly every Dawg got in on the 3-point party; they converted on 15-29 threes, led by Jarrett Hensley’s four treys. Hensley and Ali Dibba, who finished with three triples of his own, tied for the team lead in scoring with 18 points apiece.
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“I think most people would look at that and go ‘that’s why you won.’” But we won because we guarded,” head coach Scott Nagy said.
The 59 points given up by the Dawgs were their third-lowest total of the MIssouri Valley Conference portion of the season, and was a 9-point improvement from the last time they played Evansville.
“We changed it a lot and tried to keep them off balance,” Nagy said. “I don’t know if we’ve had a better 40-minute game of defense.”
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Kennard Davis Jr. had another strong outing, finishing with 14 points, including 3-7 from beyond the arc. He also led the team in rebounding with nine, including four offensive boards.
The guards getting rebounds was a big part of the game, especially since SIU’s big men were kept off the boards. Dibba and Damien Mayo Jr., who went 2-2 from three and dished three assists, each grabbed seven rebounds, and Drew Steffe, who also had three steals, had eight.
“Three guards, seven eight and nine (rebounds)… we don’t play big so we need our guards to have big man number rebounds,” Nagy said.
SIU’s big night from three started on the first points of the game. Hensley, who bounced back after a rough outing against Drake, cashed a three before Evansville hit two of their own to take a quick 6-3 lead.
The Salukis found a quick 12 points when Davis Jr. hit a three of his own, followed by another from Hensley, one from Steffe and one from Rolyns Aligbe to give a 15-8 lead. SIU had no points that weren’t from a three until the 14:01 mark when Davis Jr. made a pair of free throws.
The Dawgs went 10-17 from behind the line in the first half and held a 38-23 lead going into the break. They stretched their lead all the way to 20 before giving up a 20-6 run that allowed the Purple Aces to find themselves down only six with 6:28 left to play.
Another small run by Evansville put them down by five with 1:59 to go, but Dibba made a three to help give the Salukis a more comfortable 8-point lead.
SIU once again shot well from the free throw line to close out the game, going 6-8 in the last 1:10 of the game to help ice their win. Hensley had three of those makes, while Dibba made a pair also.
The Salukis (11-13, 6-7 MVC) will be back at home to take on the Flames of UIC (14-9, 7-6) on Saturday, Feb. 8 at 1 p.m.
Sports reporter Ryan Grieser 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.
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