CARBONDALE, Ill. – Southern Illinois scored the game's first five points and never looked back, taking a 25-point halftime lead on 10-of-13 three-point shooting, before cruising to the 90-69 win over Illinois State.
Three Redbirds – led by Antonio Reeves' 18 points – reached double-figure scoring, as Kendall Lewis scored 14 and Mark Freeman 12. Lewis pulled down a team-best six rebounds, while Freeman dished out five assists to pace the squad.
The Redbirds return home on Saturday, February 26 for the final game of the 2021-22 regular season, as the 'Birds host the Indiana State Sycamores, in a preview of the first game of the 2022 MVC Tournament, where the two teams will face off for a second tie in a six-day span.
SIU scored the game's first five points and led by six at 8-2 before the Redbirds ran off a 7-2 run to close the gap to one, but that would be as close as the Redbirds would come in the opening 20 minutes, as the hot-shooting Salukis stretch their lead to as many as 25 in the first half, hitting a first-half-ending three-pointer to extend the lead to 25.
ISU fought back in the second half, and closed the deficit to as few as 15, but could not overcome the large halftime deficit in the 21-point loss.
Illinois State was 27-of-49 shooting from the field in the game (55.1 percent), and made half of their 12 three-point attempts. SIU shot over 50 percent from the field in each half, ending the game with a percentage of 57.4 (31-of-54), while making 58.3 percent (14-of-24) from long range.
SIU was led by Ben Coupet who scored a game-high 22 points, while both Marcus Domask and Lance Jones scored 16, and Steven Verplancken scored 12.
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