SIU's magic continues

CHICAGO -- Nearly blown out, Southern Illinois changed course in a hurry. Now it's headed to the round of 16 after the school's biggest victory since the days of Walt Frazier.

The 11th-seeded Salukis erased a 19-point first-half deficit and stunned No. 3 Georgia 77-75 Sunday in the East Regional, thanks in large part to Jermaine Dearman's 25 points.

Southern Illinois (28-7) faces Connecticut (26-6) in the East Regional semifinals at Syracuse, N.Y., on Friday. The second-seeded Huskies held on to beat N.C. State 77-74.

"Our new goal now is to beat UConn," Dearman said.

"We set team goals all year. We said we wanted to make the NCAA tournament, we wanted to win our conference and we wanted to go to the Sweet 16. We've reached all our previous team goals."

With chants of "S-I-U! S-I-U!" reverberating through the United Center, SIU overcame a 30-11 hole and makes its first appearance in the final 16 since the NCAAs expanded to 64 teams in 1985.

SIU has a grand total of three victories in the tournament; an upset of No. 6 Texas Tech in the first round Friday was the Salukis' first NCAA victory since they won once in 1977.

Ten years before that, Frazier -- who would go on to NBA stardom with the New York Knicks -- led the Salukis to the 1967 NIT title.

With SIU nursing a two-point lead with 25 seconds to go, Dearman missed a shot but got his own rebound.

Georgia's Jonas Hayes was then called for an intentional foul -- much to the chagrin of animated coach Jim Harrick -- and Rolan Roberts made the second of two free throws to give the Salukis a 74-71 lead with 14 seconds left.

"I've seen that happen at least 15 times this year and I've never seen an intentional foul called," Harrick said. "That bothers me when it's so inconsistent. If they're going to call it, they ought to call it all the time. "

Southern Illinois retained possession and Brad Korn, fouled by Steve Thomas, hit two free throws for a five-point lead.

After a basket by Georgia's Rashad Wright cut it back to three, the Bulldogs took a timeout.

SIU freshman Darren Brooks, who scored 13 of his 16 points in the second half, hit the first of two free throws for a 77-73 lead. After Wright drove again for a layup, the Salukis inbounded the ball and ran out the clock.

"We should have kept the pressure on them. They made a great comeback," Wright said. "They played good defense, good pressure, and they tried to make us do things we didn't want to do."

Jarvis Hayes, Jonas' twin, led Georgia (22-10) with 26 points and 11 rebounds. Wright added 16 points as the Bulldogs lost despite a 45-27 rebounding edge.

When Jarvis Hayes banked in a 3-pointer, Georgia had roared ahead 30-11 with an aggressive early defense and physical play on the inside.

But Southern Illinois wasn't about to be blown out.

The Salukis went to work on defense, and Dearman provided the offense. The 6-foot-8 forward scored SIU's final 10 points in a startling 24-8 run, punctuating the spurt with a dunk as the Salukis closed to within 38-35 at halftime.

"A lot of them were tip-ins. I looked up at the score and we were down 18, 19 points. I knew I just had to play hard," Dearman said.

"They were the aggressor early. We became the aggressor, and then Jermaine got us back into to it," SIU coach Bruce Weber said.

"We set a goal -- it sounded crazy back in the spring -- to make the Sweet 16. Right now the Southern Illinois Salukis are going to be there."