PEORIA, Ill. - Southern Illinois senior forward Carlton Fay scored a game-high 19 points, leading the Salukis (8-6, 2-1 MVC) to a 72-64 Missouri Valley Conference men's basketball victory at Bradley (6-8, 0-3 MVC) Tuesday night at Carver Arena.
Bradley sophomore guard Dyricus Simms-Edwards (Peoria, Ill./Washington Community H.S.) scored a career-high 18 points to lead four Braves in double-figures, but it was not enough to keep the home team from dropping their third straight. Senior guard Andrew Warren, who entered the game leading The Valley at 19.4 points per game, overcame an 0-for-10 start from the field to finish with 12 points and added a team-leading seven rebounds. Forwards Jordan Prosser and Will Egolf each chipped in 10 points for the Braves.
In addition to Fay's effort, the Salukis got 11 points and a game-high nine rebounds from Mamadou Seck and 14 points from Justin Bocot.
Warren split a pair of free throws, snapping his streak of consecutive free throw attempts made at 40, with 15:19 left in the first half to give the Braves their last lead, 10-9. John Freeman scored inside with 14:13 left to start an 8-0 SIU run. Bradley used a 10-4 surge to close within 21-20 on a Prosser baseline jumper with 5:45 left in the first half, but the Salukis made their last six field goal attempts of the period to take a 35-27 lead into halftime. The closing push helped Southern Illinois complete the half shooting 62.5 percent (15-24) from the field.
Prosser scored the first basket of the second half, but the Braves could not close the gap to fewer than six points until Warren bagged a 25-foot 3-pointer with 52 seconds left to pull within 62-58. The Salukis made all 10 free throw attempts in the final minute to prevent Bradley from completing the comeback.
The Braves will be on the road for seven of their next 11 games, beginning with a two-game weekend swing through Iowa. Bradley will visit Drake Friday at 7:05 p.m. in a game to be televised on the Missouri Valley Conference Network (FS Midwest, Comcast SportsNet Chicago). The Braves will follow with a Sunday evening (6:05 p.m.) tilt at Northern Iowa, which will be televised locally on WTVP World (over the air 47.2, Comcast Digital Cable 218, Mediacom Digital Cable 121).
