CARBONDALE, Ill. -- With Southern Illinois leading scorer Jamaal Tatum out with an injured leg, his senior backcourt mate Tony Young responded with a season-high 25 points, leading the #20/21 Salukis to a 60-50 Missouri Valley Conference men's basketball victory against visiting Bradley (16-10, 7-7) Wednesday night at SIU Arena.
One of the top 3-point shooting teams in the country, Bradley suffered its worst long-range shooting night of the season by making a season-low three 3-point tries in 22 attempts (.136) as the Salukis won their 12th straight home game and improved to 77-3 at SIU Arena since the start of the 2001-02 season. Bradley senior guard Will Franklin (Houston, Texas/Alief Hastings H.S.) led the Braves with 15 points and senior center Zach Andrews (Rancho Cordova, Calif./Cordova H.S.) contributed his sixth double-double of the season with 11 points and 10 rebounds. Randal Falker countered with a double-double with 13 points and 12 rebounds for the Salukis, while Matt Shaw pulled down a game-high 14 rebounds.
Trailing only 7-6 following a J.J. Tauai reverse layup 4:45 into the game, Bradley went cold over the next 13 minutes. It took Southern Illinois a while to take full advantage, but the Salukis finally started to heat up when Young buried a 3-pointer with 10:09 left in the half for a 14-7 lead. That basket started a 22-7 run, which ended with Young's four trey of the half for a 33-14 SIU bulge with 2:40 left in the half. Andrews scored five points during an 8-1 Bradley run to close the half as the Braves narrowed the gap to 34-22 at the break.
Bradley's deficit floated between 11 and 16 points for the first 10 minutes of the second half, before the Braves finally made a serious run at a comeback. Trailing 49-34 with 9:21 left, Franklin, freshman Andrew Warren and senior Danny Adams hit consecutive baskets to pull with 49-40 wiht 7:38 left. After one Young free throw with 6:27 left, Adams hit a corner 3-pointer to pull within 50-43 with 5:15 left. Falker and Franklin exchanged baskets and Andrews converted a tough layup in traffic to trim the deficit to five, 52-47, with 3:32 left.
The Braves had a chance to narrow the deficit to one possession when Daniel Ruffin went to the free throw line with 2:42 left, but the junior point guard missed the front end of a one-and-bonus trip. After getting a defensive stop, the Braves again had a chance to to pull within one possession, but Ruffin's corner 3-pointer was short with 1:44 left. From there, the Salukis made all six of their free throw attempts in the final 1:30 to put the game away.
Bradley will play three of its final four Missouri Valley Conference games at home, beginning with Saturday's 2:05 p.m. contest against Drake. The afternoon game against the Bulldogs at Carver Arena is the featured event of Bradley's annual Alumni Weekend and is approaching sellout status. A limited number of tickets remain ($8, $12 and $18) and may be purchased from the Robertson Fieldhouse box office (309-677-2625), the Carver Arena box office or any TicketMaster outlet.
