Carbondale Reporter

Southern Illinois faced a challenging night against Belmont on Saturday, with the Salukis falling 73-68 at Banterra Center in Carbondale, Illinois. The game showcased two contrasting halves for Southern Illinois.

Head coach Scott Nagy expressed his thoughts after the game, stating, "I already know the question will be what is the difference between the first half and the second half and I would love to be able to answer that for you, but I can't — other than we had no emotion to us in the second half — guys didn't respond to timeouts or being coached." He further added, "We had good emotion; we had good energy in the first half, and we didn't in the second half."

In the first half, senior guard Ali Dibba led Southern Illinois with 17 points as they secured a 38-25 halftime lead. However, foul trouble limited Kennard Davis Jr.'s contribution to just 10 minutes. The Salukis managed an early lead by scoring 11 consecutive points after trailing 5-2.

Belmont turned things around dramatically in the second half. They opened with a strong performance, scoring ten straight points to narrow Southern's lead to three at 38-35. Tyler Lundblade contributed significantly by hitting five out of seven from behind the arc during this period. Carter Whitt also played a crucial role by scoring most of his points in these final minutes.

Drew Steffe's effort helped reduce Belmont's lead momentarily before they extended it again towards the end of regulation time. Belmont improved their shooting percentage from 30% in the first half to nearly 59% after halftime while maintaining their average success rate beyond three-point range.

Southern struggled with turnovers throughout; turning over possession eleven times which allowed thirteen additional points for Belmont compared only six forced turnovers themselves.

Dibba ended as top scorer alongside teammates like Davis who scored thirteen alongside four rebounds whilst Steffe contributed ten including five boards plus four assists overall.

Next up for SIU is an away match against Murray State on Wednesday evening followed shortly thereafter another fixture versus Valparaiso set February twenty-second where proceeds raised will benefit cancer awareness initiatives organized annually under 'Blackout Cancer' campaign theme available more details via Saluki official platforms online social media channels app stores accordingly.