Swoosh. The Illinois State University Redbirds produced that result early and often in sending the SIUC men’s basketball team scurrying back to Carbondale Saturday night.

The Redbirds came out smoking and turned a highly anticipated Missouri Valley Conference showdown into a laugher with a 105-70 blowout of the Salukis in Normal.

ISU blew open what was a 14-point game early in the second half and shot 61 percent as it cruised to the 35-point win. In the process, the Redbirds strengthened their grasp on first place in the MVP with a 10-3 mark overall and a 5-0 start in conference play.

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SIUC coach Rich Herrin said Illinois State’s dominating performance was a result of sheer determination.

They were very good and very aggressive, Herrin said. They played very physical basketball. They just took it to us, and they were very physical.

I think you’ve got to give them the credit. They came out ready to play, and they gave us a good thumping. About everything they wanted to do they got done.

The loss marked the Salukis’ second straight defeat and dropped SIUC’s record to 7-7 overall and 2-2 in the MVC. The result was the most points given up by a Saluki squad since a 114-108 win over Murray State University in triple overtime Dec. 9, 1989.

Saturday’s matchup was over almost from the opening tip, although the Salukis hung tough early in the game. Illinois State’s LeRoy Watkins set the tone by scoring the first two points inside for the Redbirds.

Watkins and teammate Rico Hill dominated the Salukis post players in combining for 25 of Illinois State’s 45 points at halftime. Hill led ISU with 20 points, while Watkins was one of three Redbird players with 11 points.

We didn’t contain them and stop penetration, Herrin said. It was just a very, very poor job of defending anything they ran. We worked at it really hard, but we didn’t stop penetration and basket cuts, and those are layups for them.

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Illinois State amassed a 43-19 lead with 4:50 remaining in the first half, but SIUC cut the lead to 45-28 on a layup by Rashad Tucker before halftime. The Salukis continued to hang close in the second half on the strength of four three-point field goals by senior guard Shane Hawkins, but ISU responded with a nine-point run by Kenneth Pierson to put the game away.

The Saluki offense struggled for the second straight night. SIUC shot 32 percent from the field, and several key players were held to sub-par performances. Tucker managed just seven points, while Monte Jenkins ended with one and shot 0-for-8 from the field.

Wednesday, the Salukis shot 29 percent from the field in an 82-72 loss to the University of Evansville at SIU Arena. Hawkins shot 3-of-16 from the field, while Tucker made five of 21 shots.

The Salukis continued a season-long streak of winning the rebounding battle. SIUC out rebounded ISU 51-41, but many of those rebounds came off of missed second-shot attempts. The Salukis were unable to make the stickbacks, which led to several easy layups for the Redbirds on the other end.

We didn’t shoot it very good tonight, but part of the reason was because we didn’t have any patience early, Herrin said. We tried to score one against five, and you can’t do that.

SIUC wraps up a two-game conference road trip tonight at 7:35 p.m. with a battle against the University of Evansville.

The game will be televised on KBSI-TV and may be heard on 95.1 WXLT-FM or at http://www.siu.edu/~athletic.