Defensive leads SIU to 50-36 victory

That’s not a typo. SIU really held Louisiana Tech to 36 points. It’s hard to imagine a DI team not breaking 45 points but it shows how well SIU defends the basketball.

While La Tech only put 36 points on the scoreboard that wasn’t their only problem. They only drew 1,800 fans for this game. In contrast, Salukihoops player of the game Matt Shaw (15 points, 9 rebounds, 6-6 FT) routinely played in front of 2000+ in high school at Trout Gym in Centralia.

Southern was just grinding it out on offense in this game, feeding Falker and Shaw down low. Falker was 6 of 11 for 12 points but the alarming stat is that he did not register a rebound in the entire game. I am sure this is an aberration but it deserves a mention.

Jamaal Foster and Jordan Armstrong did not play in this game and that is especially bad news for Foster. SIU is playing a stretch of 5 games in 10 days including 4 road games- a grueling stretch for this early in the season. We could really use some solid minutes off the bench to keep everyone fresh. As of right now it looks like all of the bench minutes will come from Tony Boyle down low, Wesley Clemens will spell Tatum and Young, and Tyrone Green will play about 10 minutes a game while Bryan Mullins in on the bench.

Most of the box scores will look something like this

Player	Minutes
Mullins	30
Tatum	30
Young	30
Shaw	30
Falker	30
Clemmons	20
Boyle	20
Green	10

That lineup looks good to me; let’s just hope we can stay healthy.

That’s all for now, check back Friday afternoon for a preview of the SIU-SLU rivalry game.