Salukis bull over Indians

CARBONDALE, Ill. -- Southeast Missouri State University's outmanned Indians put up quite a battle Saturday afternoon.

But they simply had no answer for Southern Illinois powerhouse Rolan Roberts.

Roberts, a 6-foot-6, 250-pound terror on the inside, burned Southeast for 28 points, 18 rebounds and six blocked shots as the Salukis held off the determined Indians 92-80 in front of 7,520 fans at the SIU Arena.

SIU, which has already beaten the likes of Indiana and Iowa State this season, improved to 9-2 while Southeast fell to 1-8.

"I've watched him on tape several times and we knew he was really a good player but today he was even better," said Southeast coach Gary Garner of Roberts. "He adds a dimension that most teams don't have, especially at this level.

"That guy is just one heck of a basketball player, so strong. And Southern Illinois is really a good basketball team."

On a day when the struggling Indians just might have played their best overall game of the year -- they had a season-low seven turnovers, including just one in the second half, and also reached their season high for points -- Roberts was simply too much to handle.

A transfer from Virginia Tech who averaged double-figure points in all three of his seasons with the Hokies, Roberts dominated the much thinner Indians as the sculpted senior hit 11 of 14 shots. Five of the baskets were on dunks and several more were on put-backs.

"We talk about powering the ball down low all the time," Roberts said. "It was a little easier tonight."

Along with 6-8 teammate Jermaine Dearman's 12 rebounds -- to go with 16 points -- the Salukis dominated the boards by the tune of 51-28, which was probably the biggest factor in the game.

"Rebounding is our Achilles heel, no question about it," Garner said. "I thought our defense was pretty good, but second shots killed us."

Thanks in large part to those second shots along with plenty of other easy inside baskets, the Salukis were able to hit 52.3 percent of their field-goal attempts on 34 of 65. With Southeast forced to take much more difficult shots from much further out, the Indians hit just 37.3 percent on 25 of 67.

Still, the Indians made things mighty interesting even though it appeared early in the second half as if they were about to get run out of Carbondale.

The Salukis got off to a slow start and trailed 11-4 early. Southeast led 20-18 at about the midway point of the first half but SIU was able to steadily pull away and a dunk by Roberts at the halftime buzzer put the Salukis ahead 39-27.

SIU kept up the heat to start the second half and built their advantage to 61-36 barely five minutes into the period.

But just when it looked like the SIU starters would be able to take most of the rest of the afternoon off, the Indians came to life.

Southeast steadily chipped away until a 3-pointer by Brett Hale with 6:41 left pulled Southeast to within 74-64. Kenny Johnson hit three of four free throws to make it 74-69 and then two Hale foul shots at the 4:43 mark made it 74-69 as the partisan SIU Arena crowd was getting a bit restless.

Roberts came to the rescue with six straight points -- on four free throws and a follow shot -- to build SIU's lead back to 80-69.

The Indians still weren't quite through as a 3-pointer by Demetrius King with 1:06 remaining pulled them to within 84-76, but SIU was able to ice the victory from the foul line.

"When we got up 25, they went on a little run and we couldn't stop them on defense," said Dearman.

Said Garner, "I was real proud of the guys. We could have folded the tent. We're 1-7 coming in and we get down 25 with that big crowd. It could have been a 40, 50 point game but we never gave up."

King and Drew DeMond led five Southeast players in double figures with 15 points apiece and DeMond also had a team-high nine rebounds along with two blocks. Johnson and Hale both had 14 points while Tim Scheer added 11. Johnson had a team-high five assists.

In addition to the scoring of Roberts and Dearman, SIU got 16 points from Darren Brooks, 14 from Marcus Belcher and 10 from Kent Williams. Williams also dished out seven assists, several of them leading to slams by Roberts.