Saturday, February 24, 2007
CARBONDALE, Ill. —
Randal Falker scored a career-high 30 points on 13-of-15 shooting, leading No. 13 Southern Illinois to a 76-69 victory Saturday night over Evansville in both teams' regular-season finale.Tony Young added 17 points and Jamaal Tatum had 15 for the Salukis (25-5, 15-3 Missouri Valley), who extended their winning streak to 11 games and are the top seed heading into the conference tournament, which begins Thursday.
The Salukis, winners of the league's regular-season crown five of the past six seasons, hope to become the first top seed to win the tournament since Illinois State in 1998.
Southern hasn't lost since it fell 75-68 on Jan. 17 at Evansville.
The Purple Aces (14-16, 6-12) kept it close for much of the rematch, trailing 39-33 at halftime despite the absence of leading scoring Matt Webster, who sat much of the half after picking up his second foul with 13:18 to play.
Webster, who averages more than 16 points a game, had six points in the first half and finished with 21. Jason Holsinger had 11 points and Kyle Anslinger 10 for Evansville.
Evansville made an early charge in the second half, taking a 44-43 lead on a jumper by Anslinger with 15:37 to play.
Southern responded with a 14-2 run _ including four points by Falker and five by Tatum _ over the next 7 minutes to put the Salukis ahead to stay, 57-46.
Evansville, trailing 70-58 with 3:35 left, cut the deficit to 70-66 but never got closer.
Evansville had trouble from the outset with Falker, whose 18 first-half points came on 8-of-9 shooting, mostly from inside against the foul-prone Purple Aces.
Evansville gave Southern all it could handle in the first half, making nine of its 13 shots (69 percent) and hitting three of four from 3-point range to keep things close.
Evansville committed 15 fouls in the half.
Young had 10 first-half points for the Salukis.
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