SIU won a basketball game with Jamaal Tatum playing only 6 minutes. Earlier in the season this never could have happened. JT has a bruised thigh and was rested by C-Low. A few weeks ago that would have spelled a loss for Southern. Not today and not at home. Tony Young stepped up once again and carried the team on his back, scoring 25 points on 9 of 17 shooting and only turned the ball over twice in 33 minutes. It was vintage Tony Young and it was all SIU needed to hold off Bradley with its leading scorer on the bench.
Matt Shaw set a career high with 14 rebounds. Shaw had an off night shooting (1 for 5) but still found a way to pitch in. Thats a hallmark of a winning basketball player.
Falker chipped in 13 points while hitting 5 of 7 from the free throw line. Falker drew double teams all night long but still contributed 12 rebounds to go along with his 13 points.
The bench players were each given additional opportunities with Tatum on the sidelines. The biggest bench contribution came from Wesley Clemmons. It was great to see some signs of life from Clemmons, who had been doing his best audition for the lead role in "The Invisible Man" in recent weeks. Clemmons came off the bench and played 22 minutes, scoring 7 points and collecting 3 rebounds. More importantly, he showed a lot of confidence even after taking some good shots that just did not fall into the basket. If SIU is going to make a run in March they will need Clemmons to come in and play like a starter. Clemmons took a step in the right direction tonight.
Southern let Bradley back into this game in the second half but Bradley could not hit the three point shot to save their life and their comeback fell short. SIU will have to play better on Saturday to beat Creighton and I expect that they will. Tatum has a few days to recover and he will be rested and ready to go when the Bluejays land in Carbondale on Saturday afternoon with the MVC title hanging in the balance.
