The SIUC men’s basketball team’s string of bad luck continued to deplete the team’s depth Tuesday night.

After a 73-66 loss to St. Mary’s College to extend SIUC’s losing streak to two games, the Salukis lost starting center James Watts for two games in the Power Bar Men’s Invitational in Honolulu this weekend.

Watts, a 6-foot-8 junior from Memphis, Tenn., suffered a cut to his right hand after punching a glass object in the locker room following the game. The act was committed in frustration, and the injury required stitches.

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Watts is out for an undetermined length of time, although he is expected to be ready for SIUC’s home battle against Southeast Missouri State University Thursday.

Saluki basketball coach Rich Herrin said Watts’ injury forces his Salukis to adapt with experimental lineups.

Losing Watts will definitely weaken us, Herrin stated in a press release. We’ll possibly go with a smaller lineup and one that may be able to apply a little more pressure defensively on our opponents.

Watts is coming off his best game of the season with an eight-point performance against St. Mary’s. But the incident comes at a poor time for an SIUC squad that is preparing to battle Long Beach State University at 1 a.m. Sunday.

Watts’ loss drops numbers on an already shorthanded Saluki front court. Watts joins sophomore forward/center Derrick Tilmon on the bench, as Tilmon is out for three to six weeks with a stress fracture in his left foot.

Herrin will look to 6-foot-6 junior forward James Jackson and 6-foot-8 freshman forward Thanasis Topouzis to split time at center in Watts’ absence. Sunday’s matchup marks Herrin’s fourth different starting lineup in the team’s five games.

Really, it’s too soon to say what lineup we’ll open with against Long Beach as there are several possibilities, Herrin said. James Jackson will probably be our first choice to replace Watts, but even if he does, I’m sure Thanasis (Topouzis) will see a lot of playing time as well.

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