SIU beats Indiana State, bad weather

Even though it looked like Indiana State would benefit from a short weather delay, taking a half-time lead, but SIU would respond with a dominating second half to win 80-69.

The Salukis picked up the tempo in the second half, scoring 47 points in the process.

The Salukis were led by senior forward Randal Falker's 20 points and 15 rebounds and junior guard Byran Mullins' 22 points and 5 assists.

THREE UP:

• Senior leadership. Seniors Randal Falker, Matt Shaw and Tyrone Green combined to score 42 of SIU's 80 points. Green did his damage coming off the bench attacking the basket and hitting five of six free-throw attempts.
• Not having to rely on the three. The most impressive stat from Tuesday night was SIU's 50% shooting from beyond the arc. The Salukis made 5-of-10 three-point opportunities, a vast improvement from the 6-for-24 they shot in the loss at Northern Iowa.
• Bench production. "Greenie" as Coach Lowery affectionately calls him scored 11 of SIU's 17 bench points, but the Salukis bench put forth a quality effort in Tuesday night's win.

THREE DOWN:

• Joshua Bone's production. Joshua Bone is slumping. Even though he played well in the first half of the Northern Iowa game, Bone struggled in the win over Indiana State. Bone scored 1 point (which came on a made free-throw) in 24 minutes. JB needs to be productive, because when he's on, his outside shot can stretch defenses to where Falker gets more down low opportunities.
• Free throw shooting. SIU needs to hit the freebies, end of story. An 11 point win is nice, but if SIU hits its free-throws, this game would have been a laugher.
• Weather delays. I might have been the only one who noticed ISU's mini-run that came after the weather delay concluded, but if you were paying attention, you would have noticed the Sycamores grab momentum from that point until half-time.

Notes:

• The combination of SIU's win over Indiana State and Illinois State's loss to Drake, the Salukis move into a two-way tie for third place and stands only one game back of second place.
• The Salukis and Sycamores have combined for a grand total of 2 MVC road wins, ouch!

SIU gets a chance to separate itself from Creighton in the standings if they can pull of the win Sunday in Omaha.