The weekend we've all been looking forward to is finally here! Win three and we're in, lose and it'll be a long off season. Tip for Friday night is set for 8:35 PM. I'll be in St. Louis for the 11th straight season, who else is making the trip?
Barry and the dogs have gotten us twice this season, although both match-ups were before the Panthers started to get it rolling in mid-February.
Round 1: They beat us in the McLeod back on January 6th, 58-51. Pippen went 7-10 for 18 points, Cook and Bartley had 14 and 13. Their bench was a non-factor. A.J. had 16 for us, Trey chipped in with a double-double with 11-11. Our next highest scorer was Luke with 7. Southern Illinois shot it much better than us (not surprising given how we were playing at the time). They shot 45% to our 31.5%, 40% from 3 to our 26.5% on 34 attempts for the Panthers (9 makes), and free throws both teams were pretty poor. Southern Illinois was 16-24 for 66%, UNI was 8-14 for 57%. Rebounds were similar, UNI had the slight edge 34-33 including 13 offensive rebounds to Southern Illinois' 7. UNI had 12 turnovers to Southern Illinois' 14.
Round 2: Southern Illinois used a huge second half run to get us 70-62 at their place on January 23rd. UNI was up 35-19 at halftime and gave up 51 second half points to the Salukis. UNI failed to score for 7+ minutes to start the second half. UNI turned it over 20 times to Southern Illinois 17. Rebounding again was similar with SIU pulling the 32-30 advantage. Cook lead them in scoring with 17, Lloyd Jr. and Beane both had 16 a piece and McGill chipped in with 13. Pippen only played 15 minutes but had 0 fouls, and I don't remember why he didn't play much. A.J. lead us with 22 points but also had 6 turnovers. Isaiah had one of his best games with 10 points, 9 rebounds, 5 assists and 5 steals to only 2 turnovers.
They say it's tough to beat a team three times in one year. I hope that's true. We avoided Thursday with a Southern Illinois win over Illinois State, so I think a proper thank you would be to send them home on Friday night with a loss to end their season and likely Hinson's SIU career. My head says Southern will edge us out once again, but my heart says Panthers by 5.
Barry and the dogs have gotten us twice this season, although both match-ups were before the Panthers started to get it rolling in mid-February.
Round 1: They beat us in the McLeod back on January 6th, 58-51. Pippen went 7-10 for 18 points, Cook and Bartley had 14 and 13. Their bench was a non-factor. A.J. had 16 for us, Trey chipped in with a double-double with 11-11. Our next highest scorer was Luke with 7. Southern Illinois shot it much better than us (not surprising given how we were playing at the time). They shot 45% to our 31.5%, 40% from 3 to our 26.5% on 34 attempts for the Panthers (9 makes), and free throws both teams were pretty poor. Southern Illinois was 16-24 for 66%, UNI was 8-14 for 57%. Rebounds were similar, UNI had the slight edge 34-33 including 13 offensive rebounds to Southern Illinois' 7. UNI had 12 turnovers to Southern Illinois' 14.
Round 2: Southern Illinois used a huge second half run to get us 70-62 at their place on January 23rd. UNI was up 35-19 at halftime and gave up 51 second half points to the Salukis. UNI failed to score for 7+ minutes to start the second half. UNI turned it over 20 times to Southern Illinois 17. Rebounding again was similar with SIU pulling the 32-30 advantage. Cook lead them in scoring with 17, Lloyd Jr. and Beane both had 16 a piece and McGill chipped in with 13. Pippen only played 15 minutes but had 0 fouls, and I don't remember why he didn't play much. A.J. lead us with 22 points but also had 6 turnovers. Isaiah had one of his best games with 10 points, 9 rebounds, 5 assists and 5 steals to only 2 turnovers.
They say it's tough to beat a team three times in one year. I hope that's true. We avoided Thursday with a Southern Illinois win over Illinois State, so I think a proper thank you would be to send them home on Friday night with a loss to end their season and likely Hinson's SIU career. My head says Southern will edge us out once again, but my heart says Panthers by 5.
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