Bringing back all five starters from last years team is nice. You get players who know their roles. They are battle tested with knowledge and game experience. Tonights same starting five "experienced" an unexpected loss to the Sycamores last year. Tonight the team came out of the gate with a bad taste in their mouth- and it wasn't going to happen again.
Jamaal Tatum made sure of that. Tatum could not miss in the first half. He poured in an effortless 15 points. Using Midas's touch everything JT touched turned to gold. Need a three pointer with the shot clock winding down? Give it to JT. Need a dribble drive for two? Let JT break the defense down. Tatum did it all for SIU in the first half and ISU had no answer.
In the second half SIU came out cold. Finally, after a five minute drought Matt Shaw hit a layup and a three to extend Southerns lead to 40-25. Thats all the help that Randal Falker would need. Falker took the torch and finished the race for a Saluki team winning its 4th straight game. Randal caught the ball in the post and finished. Any time the ball went into Falker he attacked the bucket- Scoring, drawing fouls, and forcing Indiana St big men Jay Tunnell and Mick Yelovich out of the game with 5 fouls each.
Other random notes from the win-
Josh Bone stuck an NBA distance 3 point shot while Tyrone Green missed every shot he took from the field.
Jamaal Foster played 9 minutes and recorded three rebounds. Good enough.
Wesley Clemmons came off the bench first but made no impact in the game. Clemmons has fallen out a favor and is now fighting Tyrone Green for minutes. Ouch.
Tony Boyle stopped and popped a 12 foot jump shot tonight and it looked good. Hopefully we'll see Boyle hit these shots anytime he is left open.
Southern pulled out a nice win tonight and the quest for a conference title continues. The next stop is Wichita State, Saturday at 1pm. We'll have a full preview here at Salukihoops and we'll be back right here on Saturday to live blog the showdown between the Salukis and the Shockers.
