DOME CLUNKER: SOUTHEAST FALLS FLAT TO SIU 70-49

ST. LOUIS -- Playing on the big stage of the Trans World Dome Monday night, Southeast Missouri State University's basketball Indians put on a performance that certainly won't earn any rave reviews.

The Indians -- arguably playing their worst game of the season -- were throttled 70-49 by a Southern Illinois squad that isn't anything close to resembling a powerhouse.

Not even a large following of Southeast supporters -- more than 4,000 fans Indian fans were on hand -- could shake the Tribe out of what seemed to be a game-long funk.

"First of all, I have to give Southern Illinois credit for playing a very good basketball game," said Southeast coach Gary Garner, whose squad fell to 6-4 as it lost its second straight game and was beaten by the Salukis for the sixth consecutive time.

"I thought they were sharp and intense. They came out more ready to play than we were."

Garner said he believed the Indians were ready to play when they hit the court. But he soon found out that wasn't the case.

"I thought we were ready to play, but at the very beginning of the game you could see it just wasn't there for us," he said. "I don't think there's any question this was by far our poorest game of the year. We played very poorly tonight.

"Every year, for whatever reason, you have about two games like this. This happened to be one of them."

While Garner was bemoaning the play of his team, SIU coach Bruce Weber couldn't have been much happier as the Salukis improved to 4-5.

"This is definitely a nice win for us, to come back after a disappointing loss to Western Kentucky (last week)," he said. "Our guys came back and responded."

Only one player reached double figures in the scoring column for the Indians, that being senior center Bud Eley, who finished with 13 points and a game-high 11 rebounds. Eley also blocked three shots.

Southeast shot just 36 percent from the field (18 of 50), had 17 turnovers and was outrebounded 45 to 36.

"Their defense was very tough," Eley said. "That was probably the best double and triple team I've seen all year."

Said Weber of the Salukis' defense, "That's been our key. If we play defense and rebound, it gives us a chance to win."

Monte Jenkins paced the Salukis with 17 points while freshman guard Brandon Mells scored 14 off the bench. Ricky Collum added 12 points.

"We know we have to play good defense," said Jenkins. "We feel if we play like we did against Saint Louis and Illinois-Chicago (two recent SIU wins), we can beat anybody."

Garner credited Jenkins and two of SIU's guards -- Collum and Mells -- with particularly hurting the Indians.

"Jenkins is a great player and he really hurt us," said Garner. "And I thought their guards really played well."

SIU also struggled with its shooting, hitting just 38 percent (24 of 63). But with the Salukis pounding the boards and playing strong defense, it hardly mattered.

The Indians led only once the entire contest -- that being 2-0 on a Roderick Johnson 15-footer which broke a drought that saw both teams go more than three minutes without scoring at the outset.

But SIU scored the next 10 points and the Salukis basically never looked back.

Southeast went six minutes without a point before the Indians used a 6-0 run to pull within 10-8.

SIU came back with seven straight points to build its lead up to 17-8.

The Indians got back to within 22-18 and went to halftime in reasonably good shape down 28-22.

But things only got worse -- much worse -- for the Indians in the second half as they were outscored 42-27.

Collum's 3-pointer at the start of the second half put the Salukis ahead 31-22. With a little more than 15 minutes left, Jenkins scored inside to give SIU a 41-28 lead. Southeast never got closer than 10 points again.

Now the Indians must prepare for their most talented opponent of the season -- Oklahoma State. The Indians and Cowboys will square off Wednesday night in Stillwater, Okla. Southeast will fly from St. Louis to Tulsa early today and then drive to Stillwater.

"We just need to regroup and come back with a good practice (today)," Garner said.