Salukis ready to take on Indiana State Resurgent SIU defense destroyed UNI Sunday at the Arena

For the first season in 15 years, the SIU men's basketball team has swept the once-dominant University of Northern Iowa Panthers, this time with a 64-53 win Sunday at the SIU Arena.

For some reason, this Saluki team has played its best defense of the year both home and away against a team that has already beaten UNLV, North Carolina State, SMU and first-place Drake.

UNI, picked to finish in the top three in the Valley preseason, is now at 2-6 and in last place. Go figure that one out. Key for the Salukis in both their wins this season was taking UNI's 6-foot-10, first-team MVC center, Ben Koch, out of the games.

Koch only had four points and two rebounds, and also three turnovers. His counterpart on the Salukis' side, 6-foot-10 Kavion Pippen, had 11 points, 11 rebounds, two assists, one block and one steal.

Shooting by both teams in the first half probably set basketball back 50 years, but UNI was the worst, hitting only 33 percent to SIU's 44 percent. The Dawgs found their stroke in the second 20 minutes of play, hitting 55 percent to the Panthers' 35 percent.

Leading the way for the Dawgs was Sean Lloyd with a quiet 15 points. Marcus Barley and Armon Fletcher both had 12, but it was Pippen, with all his 11 coming in the decisive second half; and Tyler Smithpeters, with six of his eight in the last 20 minutes of play, that helped the Dawgs pull away.

SIU led by as many as 16 points (54-38) with 6:11 to go in the game. By 3:21 to play, the Saluki lead was down to eight (54-46), but after that 8-0 Panther run, Southern went on its own 6-0 run.

"The way we played at Loyola was embarrassing," Hinson said. "But I guess my guys just like breaking streaks."

And it all goes back to whether this SIU team is determined to play defense or not.

"I'd grade us an 'A' for our defense tonight," Marcus Bartley said. But it was also Bartley's three-point shooting that was decisive. Bartley hit four of his six attempts from the qarc against the Cats. In the Dawgs win at Cedar Falls last month, he also hit four key threes.

SIU's defense also helped the offense. Southern scored 12 of its 64 points off 13 UNI turnovers. SIU created 10 of those 12 turnovers off 10 steals. Fletcher led the way with four of those 10 steals.

Needless to say, Hinson was a happy camper after this win - and crowed a bit about its' significance.

"I would like to first say that this is the first time in 15 seasons that a sweep of UNI has been accomplished," Hinson said. "But our guys are so quiet and reserved that none of them would even raise their hands at a Pentecostal religious revival."

Next up as far as streaks is winning an MVC championship. That hasn't occurred for a decade. But first the Dawgs have 10 more MVC games to go.

Look for the Dawgs to emphasize defense again tonight, Jan. 24 against Indiana State. The Sycamores just beat Illinois State by double digits last weekend. The game at the SIU Arena is an ESPN3 affair that starts at 7:05 p.m.