Salukis get swept in season series with Shockers

Two Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Year candidates, Anthony Beane, left, and Ron Baker stand on the court Saturday during SIU’s loss to Wichita State. (Luke Nozicka | @LukeNozicka)

By Sean Carley, @SCarleyDE
February 3, 2016

Behind their worst shooting performance of the season, the Salukis are now four games back in the Missouri Valley Conference race after losing Wednesday to the Wichita State Shockers, 76-55.

The loss gives the Shockers (17-5, 11-0 MVC) a sweep of the season series and five straight wins over SIU (18-6, 7-4 MVC).

With the win, Shocker coach Gregg Marshall helped secure the 1,500th win in program history and also became the winningest coach in program history.

SIU Leadership and Service Week 2024. Recognizing National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week. Events from November 15th through 21st.

SIU shot 30.6 percent in the game and 25 percent in the second half. Both of those stats rank as the Salukis’ worst performance of the season.

Outside of redshirt freshman forward Austin Weiher’s 4-4 shooting, no Saluki shot better than 50 percent in the game.

Conversely, Wichita State shot 48.1 percent. The Shockers had three players with double-digit performances and two others — senior guard Ron Baker and sophomore forward Zach Brown — had nine.

Shocker senior guard Fred VanVleet, an Oscar Robertson Award watchlist member, recorded his first double-double of the year with 12 points and 11 assists.

Sophomore forward Shaquille Morris (13 points) and senior forward Anton Grady (10) were the other double-digit scorers.

Senior guard Anthony Beane led the Salukis with 20 points, but needed 17 shots.

He moved up to fifth place in the SIU all-time career scoring list, passing Darren Brooks.

Advertisement*

No other Salukis had more than eight points in the contest.

SIU’s second and third-leading scorers, junior forward Sean O’Brien and junior guard Leo Vincent, scored just two points on combined 1-13 shooting. The duo came into the contest averaging 21.7 points combined per game.

Junior center Bola Olaniyan registered a career-high 16 rebounds with 7 points.

This is SIU’s third straight loss and with Evansville’s loss to UNI on Wednesday, the Salukis are now in a four-way tie with Evansville, Indiana State and Illinois State for second place in the MVC.

The Dawgs will be back in Carbondale at 7 p.m. Saturday to take on the Loyola Ramblers.

This story will be updated later.