Southern Illinois Salukis – Official Athletics Website

“We continue to have bad starts. “I don’t know exactly why it is, but it’s hard for us to know the scouts, our level of communication and just simple mistakes, especially at the start of games,” said head coach Scott Nagy said after the game. “When I see that we as coaches keep making these mistakes, at some point we have to change something.”

High Point (12-2) scored the first points of the game and didn’t relinquish the lead the rest of the game. Southern led by eight players midway through the first half and managed to take the lead thanks in part to strong defensive efforts during an 8-2 run.

Kennard Davis Jr. would make his first field goal of the game after not starting because of an ankle injury with a 3-pointer with 11:47 left in the first, cutting the deficit to just three points. Drew Steffe The run ended with a basket and a free throw to make it 19:17.

With 7:54 remaining in the first half, High Point had a lead of seven and went on a 12-1 run, helped by five Saluki turnovers in three minutes.

The Salukis (5:7) were behind 51:37 at the break, but showed energy at the start of the second half and reduced the High Point lead to just seven points. During the 9-2 run, SIU managed to get four players involved while also forcing three turnovers.

High Point survived the Saluki run and responded with a run of its own to push its lead back to double digits. Titus Anderson gave the Panthers a 16-point lead with just eight minutes left, and High Point kept going the rest of the way to secure the 12 points^Th Win of the season.

Dibba scored 15 of his 27 points in the second half and was 5 of 6 from the field in the final 20 minutes. He finished the game 9-16 from the field, 2-5 from behind the arc and 7-8 from the charity stripe. The Stockholm, Sweden native also had seven rebounds and three steals in the loss.

Southern Illinois shot 30 of 37 from the charity stripe while High Point was 21 of 32 from the line in a game that saw 43 total fouls called. Davion Sykes was aggressive, scoring six of his 10 points from the line while Dibba hit 7 of 8 free throws.

Davis and Sykes were the only Salukis to join Dibba with 10 or more points in the game. Antwaun Massey scored eight goals in his first game coming off the bench Damien Mayo Jr. and Steffe put six in each.

High Point shot 58 percent (33 of 57) in the game while the Salukis shot 46 percent (23 of 50) from the floor. SIU turned the ball over 14 times in the game, giving the Panthers 18 points.

HPU also won the battle in the paint, outscoring Southern by a score of 50-32. Southern narrowly won the battle on the glass, beating HPU 31-28.

D’Maurian Williams led High Point with 24 points on 8 of 15 shooting to go along with five rebounds and three assists. Keeza Giffa scored 19 points, knocking down two of HPU’s seven three-pointers.

NEXT

The Salukis travel to Northern Iowa after Christmas break to resume play in the Missouri Valley Conference on December 29th. Tip-off with UNI is scheduled for 1:00 p.m. CT from the McLeod Center.

Special offers on holiday tickets to the New Year’s Day game against Evansville can be found HERE. Tickets start at just $4 with no additional fees.

FOLLOW THE SALUKIS

Stay up to date with the latest Salukis news and information by visiting SIUSalukis.com and following the team on X @SIU_BasketballInstagram at @SIU_Basketball and Facebook at Facebook.com/SIUBasketball. Fans can also download the Salukis mobile app from the App Store or Google Play Store.