Everything was lined up perfectly for the Southern Illinois Salukis.
Coming off a two-game losing streak and in a must-win situation to get back on the right track in conference play, they were set to play what was sure to be a hotly contested game against Murray State Racers in Kentucky. But, an electrical problem and power outages on their campus due to a lightning strike forced the Racers to once again come to Carbondale on Wednesday, Feb. 19, giving the Salukis what nearly amounted to another home game.
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Yet once again, it was the same result as the Racers first visit: a Saluki loss.
The Dawgs fell 62-60, with the winning shot from Murray coming with four seconds on the clock. A timeout and the resulting inbounds play put the ball in Jarrett Hensley’s hands, but he missed a 3 at the buzzer. Hensley, who was struggling with his shot in the game, was 3 for 10 on the night from the field and 2 for 6 from the free throw line.
The Racers, who only shot 30.9% from the floor, won the game on the margins. They shot 23-25 for a sparkling 92%, whereas the Salukis only managed to go 11-17.
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They also played strong defense against the Salukis; they forced 13 turnovers, with 10 of them being steals. Murray State made the most of their opportunities and scored 17 points off turnovers.
“They made their free throws, and they get six more shots on turnovers and we lose by two. Defensively, we did a nice job… but you’ve got to do it without fouling,” head coach Scott Nagy said.
Kennard Davis Jr. was a supernova for the Salukis, finishing with 26 points and 10 rebounds. He was also the only Dawg to make a 3 pointer on a night that the team shot 1 for 12 from 3 point range.
Davis Jr. and Ali Dibba kept the Salukis afloat in the first half, scoring 20 of the Dawgs’ 24 points. Dibba, who finished with 13, split his scoring evenly between the halves with six in the first and seven in the second.
“We missed 18 shots and had one offensive rebound,” Nagy said. “That tells you everything that we need to know.”
SIU led for the first five minutes of the game before Murray State started to wake up on offense. They managed to stretch their lead as far as 28-15 before Davis Jr. and Dibba worked to cut the margin to 33-24 Racer lead at halftime.
The defensive adjustments the Salukis made at halftime paid dividends early in the second half. Murray State didn’t score until there was 14:49 on the clock, and by that time, the Salukis had come back to tie it up at 33.
The Salukis stayed hot and built a six point lead, but the Racers were lurking. AJ Ferguson made two shots at the line and JaCobi Wood made a 3 to cut the SIU lead to one with 10:13 left to play.
Jorge Moreno, who played nine minutes in the second half, had a quick four-point run and another layup to help the Salukis hold a precarious lead before Terence Harcum made two layups to put the Racers up 55-53.
It was once again the Davis Jr. show in the clutch; he tied the game at 58 with 1:51 left to play off a free throw, and made a layup to tie it at 60 with 36 seconds left to play.
Murray State took the ball down the court with around 30 seconds left, and the Saluki defense nearly held before a Steffe foul sent Kylen Milton to the line, who made both free throws before the missed Hensley 3 pointer.
“Now second half… we competed, we did a good job of running some sets and executing late game stuff and all that. But if we’d have shown up we wouldn’t have left it in the hands of anybody else to make calls,” Nagy said.
The loss dropped the Salukis (12-16, 7-10) to a tie for eighth in the Missouri Valley Conference. They will stay at home and face the Valparaiso Beacons (12-16, 5-12 MVC) on Saturday, Feb. 22 at 6 p.m.
Sports reporter Ryan Grieser can be reached at rgrieser@dailyegyptian.com. To stay up to date on all your southern Illinois news, be sure to follow The Daily Egyptian on Facebook.
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