Bola Olaniyan has two double-doubles in a row, freshman guard Deion Lavender scored a career-high 15 points, and SIU's men's basketball team outscored the 13th-ranked team in the country in the second half.
SIU men's basketball coach Barry Hinson hopes all those small victories from Wednesday's loss at No. 13 Wichita State add up to one in the standings today against Loyola. The Salukis (7-11, 0-5 Missouri Valley Conference) dropped their seventh straight game on Wednesday, 67-55. At 0-5, SIU is off to its worst start in league play since 1987.
Even with the youngest team in the league, even Hinson didn't expect such a lull in the middle of the season.
"I think that the expectations for this team this year were all based on Sean (O'Brien), Bola (Olaniyan), and Tyler (Smithpeters), and Anthony (Beane) by the years that they had last year and how they finished the season. We all did that," Hinson said. "Could you have ever in your life predicted that Anthony Beane would shoot 4 percent from the 3-point line? If you were to ask me if there's a chance that Anthony would go 1-for-25 from the three, I would have said you're crazy. There's no way. If you would have said that Sean and Tyler, and Bola wouldn't have been able to build on what they did, we all expected for those guys to do that. I still expect for that to come on, so we'll wait and see what happens."
Olaniyan, a 6-foot-7, 230-pound sophomore forward who helped SIU make its late run at the MVC tournament semifinals last season, followed up his first double-double of the season (13 points and 11 boards against Indiana State) with 12 and 10 against the Shockers. Lavender, one of two true freshmen who are expected to start today against the Ramblers (13-4, 3-2), made 6 of 11 from the field, both of his free-throw attempts, and grabbed five rebounds to go with his offense.
With little room for change -- SIU is, literally, locked up with its current roster of 13 non-seniors through the 2015-16 season -- the Salukis have ridden the season's trail downward. Freshman forward Jordan Caroline still leads the team in rebounding at 6.5 per game and is the Salukis' third-leading scorer, but was ineffective in two of the team's last three road games. Despite shooting almost all of his attempts within 10 feet of the rim, Caroline is shooting 47.8 percent from the field.
Ibby Djimde was limited to 14 minutes because of foul trouble on Wednesday, and failed to score for the fourth time in his last six games. Seven-footer Deng Leek has played in only one of SIU's five Valley games.
Anthony Beane, the team's leading scorer, went 0 of 4 from the 3-point line at Wichita, Kansas, to fall to 1 of 25 from behind the arc in Valley play. He found a way to get to the free-throw line, however, as his four attempts were the most in three games.
Beane still believes the team's offensive troubles are temporary.
"We're never going to quit, and that's one reason why I believe we're gonna turn the corner," he said. "Nobody's giving into it. Our confidence is low, a little bit, but we still have confidence in each other. All it takes is one win for us to figure out how to win a ballgame, and I feel like we'll be good."
SIU men's basketball coach Barry Hinson hopes all those small victories from Wednesday's loss at No. 13 Wichita State add up to one in the standings today against Loyola. The Salukis (7-11, 0-5 Missouri Valley Conference) dropped their seventh straight game on Wednesday, 67-55. At 0-5, SIU is off to its worst start in league play since 1987.
Even with the youngest team in the league, even Hinson didn't expect such a lull in the middle of the season.
"I think that the expectations for this team this year were all based on Sean (O'Brien), Bola (Olaniyan), and Tyler (Smithpeters), and Anthony (Beane) by the years that they had last year and how they finished the season. We all did that," Hinson said. "Could you have ever in your life predicted that Anthony Beane would shoot 4 percent from the 3-point line? If you were to ask me if there's a chance that Anthony would go 1-for-25 from the three, I would have said you're crazy. There's no way. If you would have said that Sean and Tyler, and Bola wouldn't have been able to build on what they did, we all expected for those guys to do that. I still expect for that to come on, so we'll wait and see what happens."
Olaniyan, a 6-foot-7, 230-pound sophomore forward who helped SIU make its late run at the MVC tournament semifinals last season, followed up his first double-double of the season (13 points and 11 boards against Indiana State) with 12 and 10 against the Shockers. Lavender, one of two true freshmen who are expected to start today against the Ramblers (13-4, 3-2), made 6 of 11 from the field, both of his free-throw attempts, and grabbed five rebounds to go with his offense.
With little room for change -- SIU is, literally, locked up with its current roster of 13 non-seniors through the 2015-16 season -- the Salukis have ridden the season's trail downward. Freshman forward Jordan Caroline still leads the team in rebounding at 6.5 per game and is the Salukis' third-leading scorer, but was ineffective in two of the team's last three road games. Despite shooting almost all of his attempts within 10 feet of the rim, Caroline is shooting 47.8 percent from the field.
Ibby Djimde was limited to 14 minutes because of foul trouble on Wednesday, and failed to score for the fourth time in his last six games. Seven-footer Deng Leek has played in only one of SIU's five Valley games.
Anthony Beane, the team's leading scorer, went 0 of 4 from the 3-point line at Wichita, Kansas, to fall to 1 of 25 from behind the arc in Valley play. He found a way to get to the free-throw line, however, as his four attempts were the most in three games.
Beane still believes the team's offensive troubles are temporary.
"We're never going to quit, and that's one reason why I believe we're gonna turn the corner," he said. "Nobody's giving into it. Our confidence is low, a little bit, but we still have confidence in each other. All it takes is one win for us to figure out how to win a ballgame, and I feel like we'll be good."
