In the eighth straight loss at the McLeod Center, the Salukis tried to clinch the sixth seed in the Missouri Valley Conference standings but the Panthers had other plans.

SIU (12-18, 8-9) stole a win at home Jan. 14 but the University of Northern Iowa (15-14, 9-8) utilized its home court advantage for a 73-54 win over the Salukis.

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Sophomore guard Anthony Beane continued to be the best scoring option for the Salukis. Beane finished with 17 points on 6 of 11 shooting.

The SIU defense has been solid as of late but allowed three Panthers to score at least 15 points. Junior Seth Tuttle led UNI with 19 points and was 7 of 8 from the free-throw line. He added seven rebounds and seven assists, as well.

Tuttle had more assists than the entire SIU roster. Only one Saluki assist came from a starter.

A strength of the Salukis has been offensive rebounding. Freshman Bola Olaniyan had more offensive rebounds than the entire University of Evansville team Saturday. SIU only had eight Wednesday to the Panthers 14.

Senior Bronson Verhines played only 22 minutes because of foul trouble but led the Salukis with six rebounds. Olaniyan found himself on the bench most of the game and didn’t record a rebound, and only attempted one shot from the field.

Shot selection was a vice for SIU in the loss. They were 21 of 49 from the floor and 4 of 15 from the 3-point line.

One player on the court did not have a problem with finding his shot. UNI sophomore guard Matt Bohannon finished with 17 points and hit five 3-pointers. The Panthers only had nine bench points to the Salukis’ 14.

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UNI was sent to the free-throw line 14 times and converted 11 attempts. SIU also shot the ball well and was 8 of 10 from the charity stripe.

The Salukis will try to win the final game of the season against Illinois State University Saturday at SIU Arena. Coach Barry Hinson said earlier in the season he wanted to reach the nine win plateau and a win Saturday would get SIU to 9-9 in the MVC.

As of last night, less than 1400 tickets remained for the game. Ticket prices have been lowered, starting at $5. The men’s game starts at 3:05 p.m. with the women’s game tipping off at 6:05 p.m.

Tyler Dixon can be reached at [email protected], tdixon_de on Twitter or 536-3311 ext. 256