Game #6 Mo State at SIU

Today is a new day and the question now becomes “where do we go from here?” Wednesday night’s loss against Bradley was a tough one to swallow. The Saluki’s awoke this morning to a 12-4 record sitting alone in 5^th place (3-2) one game back of the four conference leaders. Among the group in first place is Saturday’s opponent the Missouri State Bears.

For those who haven’t already heard Missouri State scored 106 points against Evansville on Tuesday night. Combine that with their recent 95-87 victory over Wichita State and you have a team that is averaging over 100 points a game in their past two contests.

Saturdays game should be an interesting spectacle for many reasons. One reason is the Salukis dire need for a victory combined with their superb home record over the last five seasons (71-3). Another reason being that Missouri State is almost an exact opposite of SIU. Let’s compare the two teams.

Offense- Missouri State runs a shoot em up offense and prefers to play high scoring games while SIU has struggled to get consistent scoring. The dawgs will work the shot clock and try to limit possessions.

Defense- SIU plays a rough and rugged man to man defense. If you can’t play tough man to man D you can’t play for Chris Lowery. Missouri State plays a zone and has given up some big time points this season. However, SIU has had documented struggles against the zone this year so this will be a key point to watch.

Bench play- Southern basically goes 7 deep. Wesley Clemmons has given solid if not spectacular minutes off the bench and Tony Boyle has shown some flashes of effectiveness. Beyond those two guys the starters are responsible for carrying the load, averaging over 30 minutes each. The Bears take a different approach giving regular minutes to nine players and not one player averages 30 minutes, not even all conference guard Blake Ahearn who leads the team with 29.9 minutes a game.

Blake Ahearn will be the key for Missouri State and he is one of the top shooters in the nation. Beyond Ahearn, 6-5 senior Tyler Chaney can shoot the three (31 of 64, 48%) and leads the team in rebounding with 5.1 per game. Junior guard Spencer Laurie is a Springfield, Missouri native and a stabilizing force for the Bears averaging 7 points a 5 assists. Spencer’s brother Shane Laurie is in the nine man rotation as well.

SIU must attack the zone if they want to win this game. JT had an awful night shooting at Bradley (2 for 10) and will need to bounce back. Tony Young has played a bit better lately but where is last year’s all-conference guard? Time is running out for Young to leave his mark during his senior season.

Saturday’s game will take us in one of two directions- down to .500 in conference play or back towards the top of the conference. The question remains “where do we go from here?” Saturday at the Arena the Salukis will have an opportunity answer.