With SIU down one against the Belmont Bruins with 5.9 seconds left and the length of the floor to go, Saluki men’s basketball guard Quel’Ron House took the inbounds pass and went running. With five people trying to stop him, House sunk a floater with 0.1 seconds remaining to snatch a 68-67 victory from the jaws of the Bruins.

The Salukis walked into Nashville, Tennessee on Sunday, Jan. 4 looking for their first conference road win of the season – and they got it – moving them to 2-3 in the Missouri Valley. 

Both teams opened the game with early charges on offense. The Salukis opened up a quick 5-0 lead but Belmont answered with five points of their own just as quickly. It all led to SIU taking a 7-5 lead five minutes into the game.

Offense was unusually hard to come by in the opening portions of the matchup, given how fast-paced both teams normally like to play. The two teams combined to go 7-21 from the field and 1-7 from three in the first eight and a half minutes. Those offensive struggles meant the Salukis took a 10-7 lead into the second media timeout.

Long scoring droughts finally got broken for both teams coming out of the timeout, with the Bruins having gone five minutes without a basket and SIU having gone three minutes. The Salukis continued to play lockdown defense, forcing the Bruins into a 1-7 stretch from the floor. That defense effort was a huge part in SIU keeping a 15-13 lead with 7:40 left in the half.

The offensive side continued to be a struggle for both teams, even with trips to the free throw line becoming more frequent in the later stages of the half. The two teams combined to only make nine of their 16 free throw attempts, adding up to 56%. That meant Belmont couldn’t get over the hump and trailed 22-18 with 3:18 left in the first half.

As the half came to a close, the Bruins were no closer to solving the puzzle on the offensive end. Their 22 points in the first half were the least in a half for the team this season. To compound matters, the Salukis seemed to finally get into the flow of things on offense. SIU headed to the locker room holding on to a 26-22 lead.

The two teams combined to shoot a rough 35% from the field, 19% from three and 55% from the free throw line. Saluki guard Jalen Haynes led all scorers with 8 points through the game’s first 20 minutes.

Belmont came out of the half ready to redeem themselves, with back-to-back baskets anytime the Salukis got any further away than 4 points. Guard Jabez Jenkins tied the game at 34 for the Bruins with 15:04 left in regulation, the first tie since early in the first half.

That’s when the lids finally came off the rim for both teams. Saluki guard Isaiah Stafford scored 8 points in the span of 1:21, and the Bruins scored 9 points as a team in almost exactly the same time frame. A layup from forward Prince Aligbe gave SIU a 44-43 lead with 11:15 left in the game.

After seven lead changes in the first 10 minutes of the second half, Belmont finally settled into holding a lead of their own. The Bruins going on a 7-8 stretch from the floor gave them a 53-49 lead over the Salukis with 7:53 left in the game.

That seemed to be exactly what the doctor ordered for Belmont, as they spent the next few minutes slowly but surely adding to their lead. That lead sat at 62-53 heading into the final media timeout of the matchup.

A throw-in violation on the Bruins while they tried to inbound the ball with 1:53 left in the matchup opened the door for the Salukis. A quick 5-0 run for SIU brought it to a slim 65-63 lead for the Bruins with 1:06 remaining, forcing a Belmont timeout.

The Salukis finally took the lead back when House picked the pocket of a Bruin and Isaiah Stafford made a fast-break layup to make it 66-65 with 18.6 seconds left. Belmont forward Eoin Dillion replied with a turnaround jumper with 5.9 to go to give the Bruins the lead back. That’s when House made his daring dash and last-second layup to win it 68-67.

That final basket made House the leading scorer for the Salukis at 15 points. He was joined in double figures by Stafford (14) and Haynes (13). The Salukis’ eight made 3-pointers on the evening were their second most in a game this season, trailing only the 10 they made in an 86-84 win at High Point on Dec. 3.

The now 8-8 Salukis have now reached a .500 record for the first time since falling to 6-6 after their 75-68 loss against Illinois State to open conference play on Dec. 18. They’ll try to make their way above that mark on Wednesday, Jan. 7 when they travel to Chicago to take on the Illinois-Chicago Flames at 7 p.m.

Sports reporter Eli Hoover can be reached at [email protected] or @hoovermakesart on Instagram.

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