Carbondale Reporter

Southern Illinois University's basketball team faced a challenging match against the University of Florida, ranked 21st, resulting in a 93-68 loss on Friday night at Exactech Arena. The Gators dominated from the start, scoring the first seven points and maintaining their lead throughout the game.

"Being down 21 in the first half, it's pretty tough to come back against a team like that," said Scott Nagy, head coach of Southern Illinois. "We just didn't have any fight in the first half. There were several loose balls, several opportunities for us to make plays and we didn't make them."

Ali Dibba led Southern Illinois with 17 points, while Jarrett Hensley contributed 14 points and Kennard Davis Jr. added 11. The Salukis played without guard Elijah Elliott after he left early in the second half due to an injury.

Despite the loss, Southern Illinois showed strength in rebounding, outpacing Florida 49-46 overall and securing 20 offensive rebounds that resulted in 16 points. Freshman Rolyns Aligbe led with ten rebounds, six of which were offensive. Elliott managed eight rebounds in his limited playtime of 19 minutes, while Antwaun Massey added seven rebounds alongside his seven points.

After trailing by eight early on, Southern Illinois narrowed Florida's lead to one point at 14-13 midway through the first half by holding Florida scoreless for nearly five minutes. However, Florida responded with a decisive 22-2 run over five minutes that included forcing six turnovers and making five three-pointers.

The Salukis ended the first half trailing by 21 points after a brief scoring burst capped by Ali Dibba's fast-break layup. In the second half, both teams scored evenly at 47-43. Dibba scored eleven of his total seventeen points during this period.

"In the second half in terms of how hard we played is what has to happen for our basketball team," Nagy noted about their performance improvement after halftime.

Southern Illinois shot only 34.7 percent from the field and struggled with long-range shots despite making some gains in free throws.

Florida excelled beyond expectations from three-point range with sixteen successful attempts out of thirty-nine shots taken—surpassing their previous season average—with contributions from seven different players. Alijah Martin was notable as he led all scorers with thirty-two points while Thomas Haugh added nineteen for Florida.

Next week sees Southern Illinois continue its games within Florida at Ft Myers during Gulf Coast Showcase starting Monday against La Tech scheduled at two p.m CT available via FloCollege broadcast services online.

Fans are encouraged to stay updated through SIUSalukis.com or social media channels including X (@SIU_Basketball), Instagram (@SIU_Basketball), Facebook (Facebook.com/SIUBasketball), along with downloading "Salukis" mobile application available across major app stores like Apple’s App Store or Google Play Store platforms respectively.