Box Score

CARBONDALE, Ill. -- The University of Indianapolis men's basketball team held a halftime lead and senior guard Darius Adams led all scorers with 22 points, but Southern Illinois fought back to escape with the 65-58 exhibition victory in front of 3,547 at SIU Arena.

Adams added five rebounds, three steals and two assists, while senior forward Nate Blank contributed 11 points on 5-of-8 shooting and senior forward DeWann Squires scored 10 points on 4-of-7 shooting. Junior guard Adrian Moss added six points, five assists, four steals and two rebounds.

After leading by three at halftime, 38-35, and still with that advantage, 42-39, with 16:38 to play, UIndy fell behind, 49-44, after a 10-2 run by the Salukis with 11:48 to play.

The Hounds came back behind Adams as he scored five in a row to tie the score and then his steal led to freshman forward Leland Brown hitting one free throw to put UIndy back in front, 50-49, with 9:21 to play. After a defensive stop, Adams scored again to put the Greyhounds back up three, 52-49, with 8:43 to play.

Southern Illinois responded with a 12-0 run to take its largest lead, 61-52, with 4:57 left in the game, but UIndy would not go away. The Greyhounds pulled with three, 61-58, with 1:20 to go after a jumper by Blank and three Adams' free throws.

UIndy forced the stop on the next possession, but SIU came down with its 15th offensive rebound and then hit a jumper as the shot clock expired to seal the win.

Southern Illinois was led by Gene Teague with 13 points and Carlton Fay with 12 points and 10 rebounds.

Each team shot 22-of-49 (.447), but SIU made two more three-pointers (5-3) and hit five more free throws (16-of-25 to 11-of-18). SIU also out-scored UIndy, 12-1, in second chance points after winning on the boards, 39-22. UIndy forced 20 turnovers, including 11 steals, while only committing 11 miscues of its own.

The Greyhounds opened the scoring with a jumper by Adams after UIndy won the tip, 2-0, and maintained the lead, 4-2, after Adams found Squires wide open for a baseline jumper. The Salukis came back to score five in a row to take the lead, 7-4, and were still up three, 9-6, with 15:16 to play.

UIndy scored the next five as Squires made a steal and took it the distance. Two possessions later, Moss found Brown on the break for the lay-up and the foul to put the Greyhounds in front, 11-9.
Southern Illinois regained the lead, 16-14, but the Hounds rallied with a  9-2 run starting with a three-pointer from Moss and another fast break lay-up by Brown. After an SIU score, Moss made a steal and went in for a lay-up and then stole the ball again and fed Blank for the score to put UIndy up five, 23-18, with 9:50 to play. The Hounds took their largest lead, 26-20, almost three minutes later when freshman Cody Vest swung the ball around the three-point line to a wide-open Squires for the triple.

The Salukis hit back-to-back three-pointers to tie the score, but UIndy answered with a pull-up jumper by Blank and fast-break three-point play by Adams to go back up five, 31-26, with 3:45 to go. The Hounds were able to keep the lead at six after a triple from Blank, 34-28, with 3:11 to go, a difficult drive and finish by Adams, 36-30, with 2:13 to play and a fancy crossover and floater by Adams, 38-32, with 1:41 to go. The Salukis scored on a three-point play on the ensuing possession to account for the Greyhounds halftime lead, 38-35.

The Greyhounds shot 61.5 percent (16-26) in the first half and earned eight steals among 12 forced turnovers to lead 14-7 in points off turnovers. Adams scored 11, while Squires and Blank added eight and seven points, each. Moss had five points, four assists and four steals in the opening half.

The Salukis shot 55.6 percent (15-27) and earned eight offensive rebounds, while allowing zero to lead 7-0 in second chance points. SIU was 1-of-7 at the free throw line in the first half.

The Greyhounds will play their third and final exhibition game on Monday night at 7:30 p.m. against 2010 NCAA Division I Elite Eight participant Tennessee.

Post-Game Q&A with Head Coach Stan Gouard

What did you think of the game today and how your team played?

"I thought we got better in comparison to Tuesday night against Purdue and that's always our thing. We want to get better. We want to keep trying to work on the things we're not so good at. Today, our guys did a really good job battling against a much bigger and stronger team and hung in there. We were up three points at halftime against those guys. I thought our energy was there the whole game, but we just couldn't sustain it for 40 minutes."

How important is it to be in a competitive, 40-minute game during the exhibition season?

"It's great. Sometimes, I don't like too many exhibition games, but we've played good against the first two, especially today. It's very important to play against these guys and see where we are because our league is so competitive. I think games like this prepare us for the GLVC."

What did you think of Darius Adams' performance?

"He did a better job today of taking his time and letting the game come to him. He and I have spent so much time breaking down film and talking about things he needs to work on. He's gotten so much better from year one to year two in becoming a student of basketball. I think the more he evaluates himself as a player and as a person the better he's going to be and he's going to help this team a lot.

"I'm really pleased at his production today. He made some big buckets. Those guys at Carbondale really complemented how well he played. I think he can play in the Missouri Valley Conference and some of those guys overlooked him and we're lucky to have him and we're going to ride his coattails this year and see how far he takes us."

What did you think of the progression of your new players from the Purdue game to Southern Illinois?

"They did a much better job and much better production. I think the first game was getting jitters out of the way. Leland Brown played well. He went 2-for-2 from the field, but really guarded his tail off and ran the floor to get some easy transition scores. He got his hands on a lot of rebounds. Cody Vest and Wilbur O'Neal did a good job and we need to get them more touches inside. Those guys fought and they are buying in to what we are trying to do. We have a lot more to learn and a lot more to put in on the offensive end and those guys have done a great job to this point of buying in and wanting to get better.