The first twenty minutes of tonight's game were uniformly positive for the Salukis and it appeared that the heavily favored St. Mary's Gaels would be put to the test. SIU led by as many as 9 in the first half and carried a 31-27 lead into the intermission.
However, the second twenty minutes was an absolute mess. The Salukis came out flat and St. Mary's hit on all cylinders. The final deficit was thirteen points, 65-52, but the issue was never in doubt. The Gaels were up by as many as 22 in the second half.
As bad as that sounds, there were still some bright spots for the Salukis. Ryan Hare finished with 14 points and Kevin Dillard was en route to a big game until foul trouble landed him on the bench late in the first half.
The rest was middling at best. St. Mary's struggled from the field (39%), but they managed to rack up 22 points from the line. Patrick Mills was limited to 5 pts in the first half, but picked it up and finished with 16.
After an implosion of this magnitude, fingers could be pointed, but this was a team loss. Collectively, there was a 10 minute scoring drought in the second half and the Salukis shot just 27% from the floor. On the glass, SIU was outrebounded by 15 tonight.
The bottom line... St. Mary's was a superior basketball team and this was a comprehensive defeat. This team has got to play 40 minutes of basketball. Plenty of potential remains for this season and I am optimistic, but tonight was a very tough loss.
