The cold coming from the ice underneath the hardwood in the Enterprise Center seemed to seep into SIU Salukis’ offense. 

Playing their season-ending 70-53 loss to the Missouri Valley Conference tournament No. 1 seed, the Drake Bulldogs, in the home of the St. Louis Blues hockey team, SIU endured several multi-minute scoreless runs and shot only 42.2% from the floor. 

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It may have been turnovers that doomed them more though. Drake’s league-leading defense was on full display, holding the Salukis to their lowest point total of the year and 15 turnovers.

Drake dominated on the offensive boards early as well, picking up two quick offensive rebounds and two accompanying buckets. The Bulldogs racked up 8 offensive rebounds in the first half, 14 in the game and outrebounded the Salukis in the game 34 to 32.

“They were just a lot more physical than we were. 14 offensive rebounds, and they all hurt us,” head coach Scott Nagy said. 

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The first half was particularly painful for the Salukis and their faithful fans who followed them from Carbondale to St. Louis. SIU had 9 turnovers in the first period alone and gifted the Bulldogs 15 points directly off of them.

Drake shot only 41.9% from the field and 35% from 3.

It was the offensive rebounds, the turnovers that beat us, and a lot of it just had to do with their physicality,” Nagy said. 

While they cleaned up the turnovers in the second half, the deficit in shots was too much to overcome. 

“They had 11 more shots than us in the first half, and we were down 11 points,” Nagy said. “You count the turnovers and then the offensive rebounds that they get, the extra shots, that’s really what beat us. We guarded them pretty well, we couldn’t get our defensive rebounds.”

Drew Steffe opened the scoring for the game off a feed from Davion Sykes, who started in place of the currently-in-concussion-protocol Damien Mayo Jr., and Ali Dibba picked up where he left off in yesterday’s Indiana State matchup, picking up an early 5 points before the first media timeout.

SIU’s defense, especially that of Steffe, who recorded a block and a steal, kept the Bulldogs largely silent through the first ten minutes. The Steffe-Sykes connection was also on display when Steffe missed a 3, Sykes grabbed the rebound and kicked it right back out to Steffe, who didn’t miss the second time and put the Salukis up 14-11. 

Dibba and Rolyns Aligbe found themselves with two fouls apiece early, though Dibba largely stayed in the game. The rest of the team put Drake into the bonus with 6:00 left in the half, which they capitalized on with 4 made free throws.

Drakes’ defense  clamped down on the Dawgs, holding them without a field goal for over 4 minutes before Kennard Davis Jr. heated up and hit a stepback jumper and 3 pointer to cut the margin to 29-22.

The Salukis came out of the half firing; Sykes tipped an offensive rebound out to Steffe, who hit a 3 before another Sykes offensive rebound led to a Dibba basket to cut it to 33-39. 

Hensley alone missed 4 3-point attempts in the opening minutes of the second half as the offense as a whole fell silent outside of Steffe and Dibba’s quick start. SIU had another four-plus minute scoreless streak, though Drake, who shot only 43.9% from the field for the game,  wasn’t able to expand their lead much. 

Jorge Moreno had two baskets, including a spin move and drive to the hoop, but Drake, seemingly earning every bounce and even corralling a blocked shot by Moreno and putting it back up, was heating up from the floor and went up 53-39 with 7:35 left to play. 

Drake was able to bury the  Salukis with another 3, and had a wide-open slam by Cam Manyawu to suck the air out of the arena and drive the large contingency of SIU fans in Enterprise Center to near silence with 5:07 left to play.

Drake’s 3-pointer by freshman Isaia Howard, his fourth of the game, with 3:25 to play was what buried the Salukis. Drake fans, who showed up en masse in St. Louis, roared in approval as Howard set his career high in both points, 21, and steals, 6.

After Hensley subbed out, Drake coach Ben McCollum called a timeout for Nagy to be able to bring Dibba, who finished with 19 points, and Davis Jr. to the bench with 54 seconds left, and Drake dribbled the ball out to end the Dawgs’ season. 

Drake advances to the semi-finals in hopes to punch their third-straight ticket to the big dance, a feat accomplished by one other team in MVC history: the Salukis.

SIU ended the year 14-19 overall and 9-13 in the MVC. Looking forward, Nagy isn’t afraid to shy away from the expectations of fans.

“I want them to expect more from us… I like being in a place where basketball’s very important,” Nagy said. 

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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