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SPRINGFIELD, Ill. -- Sophomore forward
Leland Brown had a career night, but it wasn't enough for No. 20 UIndy men's basketball against No. 13 Southern Indiana, 78-60, in a SCHEELS Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament quarterfinal on Friday night at the Prairie Capital Convention Center. The Screaming Eagles (22-6) advance to Saturday's semifinals against No. 1 Bellarmine.
Brown scored a career-high 23 points for the fourth-seeded Greyhounds (19-8), which received a first round bye, against the fifth-seeded Eagles. UIndy swept the season series against USI in the regular season, but couldn't keep up in the third meeting this season between the long-time in-state GLVC rivals.
Southern Indiana is the top defensive team in the conference and showed it against UIndy by forcing 21 turnovers with 12 steals.
"We were trying to make plays that weren't there. I think we started dribbling too much and they corralled all of guards," head coach
Stan Gouard said. "We just tried to do too much, too early and those guys were ready for us tonight and just out-toughed us."
USI limited UIndy to 44.2 percent shooting (19-43) and also broke out of a nearly season-long shooting slump to connect at a 51.8 percent clip (29-56), including 10-of-20 three-pointers. The Hounds made only 1-of-8 three-pointers, but were able to convert 21-of-23 free throws
"Going into the game they were 10-of-46 from three in our first two games and went 10-of-20 tonight," Gouard said. "They made shots and we never adjusted to their shooting. At the end of the shot clock, especially, when guys were open we didn't do a good job of closing out to them. It's a scouting thing. It's a mental thing and it's a physical thing. We've got to fix all of those things going forward.
"We've got to be able to guard. We're not guarding like we used to. A lot of holes in our team right now and they are going to be fixed this week."
Southern Indiana was led by Brandon Hogg with 23 points and Lawrence Thomas and Isaac McClure each scored 13 points.
The Greyhounds pushed the pace with a pair of fast breaks leading to the first six points of the game, but the Screaming Eagles came back with an 11-4 run to take the lead with 13:41 left to play. That started a stretch of four ties and five lead changes until a combination of UIndy miscues and torrid shooting by USI helped the Eagles pull away after
Will Smith hit a top of the key jumper to put UIndy ahead, 20-18, with 7:31 left in the first.
USI went on a 12-2 run over the next 5:11 to go up by eight, 30-22, after a tip-in by Romaric Lasme. UIndy tried to rally at the end of the half with seven of the next 10 points to close within four, 33-29, on a three-point play by
Joe Daniels, but Southern Indiana had the answer. Kenyon Smith made USI's seventh three-pointer of the half and then after a turnover, UIndy fouled Hogg with 1.8 seconds left and he hit both free throws for a nine-point halftime lead, 38-29.
"We had a chance to cut the lead and we made some mistakes to let those guys go back down and score," Gouard said. "We've got to slow down. We're playing too fast. It's the postseason and your legs aren't there any more and when you lose your legs, you lose your mind a little bit. We've just got to slow down and let the plays on the offensive end develop."
UIndy turned the ball over 14 times in the first half that led to 16 Southern Indiana points as the Screaming Eagles shot 53.8 percent, including making 7-of-13 triples. Southern Indiana was only averaging six made three-pointers per game in the regular season. When able to hang on to possession, the Greyhounds shot 59 percent and made 8-of-9 three-pointers in the opening frame.
The Screaming Eagles immediately started the second half with the first four points to put UIndy down 13 and the Greyhounds were never able to mount a serious rally as the game was never back within single digits. A 13-2 run, which included three McClure dunks, put the Greyhounds down 21, 63-41, with 8:56 remaining to clinch the decision.
The Greyhounds will now wait for the NCAA Selection Show on Sunday at 10:30 p.m. on NCAA.com to find out their NCAA Tournament fate and potential destination. The Greyhounds were ranked fourth in the final NCAA Midwest Region rankings on Feb. 29. The top eight teams in the region will be selected for the 64-team tournament. UIndy is looking to make back-to-back appearances and seventh trip in school history.