The Saluki men’s basketball team was seeing red Sunday afternoon after it dropped its final exhibition contest 97-83 to the Athletes in Action’s red squad at SIUC Arena.

SIUC struggled from the floor in the first half, shooting only 34 percent on 14-of-41 shots, while Athletes in Action shot 45 percent, hitting 14-of-31 from the field. The difference in the first half was three-point and free-throw shooting.

The Salukis hit only two of the 14 three-pointers they attempted as well as being good on six-of-12 from the free throw line, while AIA drained five out of nine from behind the arc and hit 13-of-15 from the charity stripe all contributing to AIA’s 46-36 halftime lead.

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In the second half, however, the Dawgs turned things around.

SIUC shot 51 percent from the floor and went 6-of-17 from three-point land, but AIA did just enough to hold on to the victory, outscoring the Salukis 51-47 in the second stanza.

The Dawgs were paced by forwards Jaratio Tucker (16 points, nine rebounds) and Scott Burzynski (14 points) and guard Johnny Dadzie (14 points. AIA was led by forward Scott Highmark (25 points), a former St. Loius University standout and guard Mark Pack (20 points).

Although Saluki guard Shane Hawkins was held to just nine points on three-of-13 shooting 12 attempts which were from behind the three-point stripe there was a bright spot in the gloom of the defeat.

Damon Jones, in his Saluki basketball debut, scored 10 points and grabbed three rebounds in the losing effort Sunday.

SIUC head basketball coach Rich Herrin said he is looking forward to having Jones as a consistent contributor to the hardwood squad.

Jones will be a player, he said. He uses his body to his advantage. He can score in the blocks and is a strong rebounder.

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He’s a good addition to the program.

The loss to AIA marked the Salukis’ second preseason loss, as the Dawgs were defeated 67-66 to the Zagreb (Croatia) basketball club Nov. 10.

SIUC will take to the road Wednesday, heading for DeKalb to take on Northeren Illinois University in the Dawgs’ season opener.

Herrin said he is looking to go to his bench a bit more this season than he did last season when he had the likes of Chris Carr, Marcus Timmons, Paul Lusk and Ian Stewart.

The biggest improvement we have in this year’s squad over a year ago is that we have so much more depth, he said. We’re evaluating10-to-14 players this year as opposed to working eight or nine last season.

That’s going to allow us to use the entire floor and apply more pressure defensively.

Tip-off for Wednesday’s game at Evans Field House in DeKalb is scheduled for 7:05 p.m.