March 5, 2006

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By Tom Weber
www.SIUSalukis.com

ST. LOUIS, Mo. - Southern Illinois proved its skeptics wrong.

The chatter among some of the media at the Savvis Center before Saturday's Missouri Valley Conference championship game was that the Salukis had not yet done enough to make the NCAA Tournament and were unlikely to beat Bradley, the league's hottest team.

NIT, here we come? Not so fast.

After barely keeping up with the Braves in the first half, Southern Illinois stepped into the ring in the second half like a determined prize fighter and delivered one vicious punch after another.

Bradley never fought back, and the Salukis knocked them to the canvas, celebrating their first conference tournament championship in 11 years with a 59-46 victory.

Saluki coach Chris Lowery, who became the first person in league history to win the championship as both a player and head coach, said the game was a war of wills between the two teams.

"I told (my team) if you step up and play hard and make them look you in the eye, we'll judge and see who is the toughest," Lowery said.

Early in the game, Southern Illinois (22-10) looked like it would be lucky just to keep the score close.

Braves' super sophomore Patrick O'Bryant was throwing down dunks left and right and had 13 first-half points. Saluki point guard Bryan Mullins left the court after just four minutes, in agony from a throbbing right ankle he injured in last night's win over Northern Iowa.

One pundit was overheard saying he couldn't believe Bradley (20-10) was ahead only 24-23 at the break. Indeed, it seemed like it should have been much worse. The Braves led by as many as seven points, but Jamaal Tatum knocked down a couple of 3-pointers for SIU to stop the bleeding.

"I talked about playing in the tournament, and what it's like (to win) and to be able to sit back for a week and see your name, and have everybody talk about you, and where you're seeded and how great you are," Lowery said. "It's a much better feeling than sitting on pins and needles, wondering."

The second-half play of Saluki forward Randal Falker was the clear difference. Not only did the tournament MVP hold O'Bryant to three points after intermission, but he put on a scoring and rebounding clinic of his own, finishing with 17 points and a career-best 16 rebounds.

"We came out here and put it all on the line and played for each other," said the 6-foot-7 sophomore, who yielded five inches to the 7-foot O'Bryant.

"You can't have excuses about (how) they're bigger than us," Lowery said. "You've just got to play hard."

Falker started the second half by slipping past O'Bryant for an authoritative two-hand slam. That started a 17-2 Saluki run that was capped off by a rim-rattling Matt Shaw dunk with 9:58 remaining in the game.

"All the ups and downs, coach always kept our heads up, and we played together as a family," Falker said.

During the decisive 10-minute stretch, Southern's defense held Bradley to 1-of-10 shooting and forced four turnovers.

"We wanted to pressure them and get them frustrated and speed them up a little bit," said Saluki guard Jamaal Tatum, who finished with 16 points and a spot on the all-tournament team with teammates Shaw and Falker.

The majority of the 13,969 in attendance were Saluki fans, and they raised the volume in Savvis to an ear-splitting crescendo.

The game went from being a nail biter to a rout in short order.

"We wanted to see if (Bradley) could fight us back," Lowery said. "The first half, we just wanted to grind them down, and then in the second half, we went after them."

Two prime examples of Southern's determination on the afternoon were the return of Mullins, and strangely, a cheerleading incident that took place late in the game.

After playing just four minutes in the first half, Mullins played 16 in the second.

"I didn't know if I was going to play him again, but I just decided to draw something on the board to start the half, and I just put his name up there," Lowery said. "He looked at me like -- and I said you're playing, aren't you? And he said yeah."

With less than four minutes remaining in the game, cheerleader Kristi Yamaoka crashed to the floor at midcourt during a cheer. She lay motionless, and the game was delayed for several minutes while she was carefully placed on a stretcher.

A silent Savvis Center returned to life when the Saluki pep band played the school fight song, and Yamaoka resumed cheering while being wheeled off the court. She was taken to a St. Louis-area hospital for observation.

SIU will make its fifth-straight NCAA Tournament appearance -- the previous four via at-large bids.

"We've had superior teams come here and not be able to leave with that trophy," Lowery said. "Now we can just relax."