Wichita State’s senior guard Ryan Hurrs stood at the free-throw line with his team up 59-56 with only seconds left in an important game for both the Salukis and Shockers.

Herrs would miss both his bonus shots, and the game would end just as it had paused with his trip to the line, 59-56.

With the Saluki loss, post season hopes for the Dawgs were almost mathematically erased with only seven games remaining in the season.

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The Salukis shot only 28 percent from the field in the game, and scored only 18 points in the first half as the team went into the lockeroom down by three points, 21-18.

Saluki sophomore guard Trot Hudson, who had only two points in the first half from free-throws, scored 27 of SIUC’s 35 points in the second half, and ended the game with 29 points.

Unfortunately for the Dawgs, the rest of the offense was not so prolific in the game, and senior forward Scott Burzynski was second on the team in scoring with six points on two three pointers which came within a minute of each other in the first half.

Sophomore guard Shane Hawkins, who was averaging 13 points per game going into the contest, could only muster three points on one field goal 32 minutes into the game.

Hudson made the game interesting going into the final minute of the game when he raised from 25 feet and sunk a three-pointer to put the Salukis with six, 53-59. As a encore, Hudson then popped-up from 25 feet again, and connected to put SIUC within three points, 56-59.

Hurrs was then fouled with three seconds left, and was put to the line to put the Saluki dreams to sleep if he connected on just one of the two bonus shots he failed on both attempts.

On the rebound of the second free-throw, freshman forward Monte Jenkins flung the ball sidearm, and missed by only two feet.

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The Dawgs remained winless in the conference on the road this season, and lowered their record to 10-12 overall and 3-8 in the conference.

Saluki coach Rich Herrin said his squad’s chances of winning the game were slim, but Hudson gave the team a last second shot at tying the game to send it into overtime.

I don’t know if we had an opportunity to win, but we had opportunities to come back, he said. We had an opportunity to tie at the end of the game, but I don’t know if we ever had opportunities (to win) because we never did anything on the offensive end until it got out of hand, and Troy got a hand up and hit some threes for us. Otherwise it was a tough night on the offensive end, and once they got a 12 or 14 point lead we didn’t do a very good job containing them defensively; but we couldn’t score, so it didn’t really make any difference what we did.