CARBONDALE � The Basketball Salukis evened the series with the Loyola Ramblers with the 63-53 win at the SIU Arena Sunday.
Loyola jumped out to a 7-0 lead to start the game, and that would be their biggest lead the rest of the game, Ramblers holding a 30-29 lead at the half.
The Salukis held the Ramblers to less than 39% shooting in the 2nd half, the turning point coming off a fast break dunk by Eric McGill midway through the 2nd.
SIU took the lead late in the game, Aaron Cook put the dagger in it with a step-back corner-3 with just over a minute to go.
Salukis earn the big conference win, offensively out-rebounding one of the nation’s best defensive rebounding teams, and outscoring the Ramblers 13-2 in second-chance points.
"Feels great, you know we definitely needed this win moving forward.  Like you said this is a really good team…somebody we’ve struggled to compete with in the past three games.  We finally got one over on ’em, so it was a good feeling," said SIU junior guard Aaron Cook.
"Kind of a monkey off your back, signature win, beat the first place team in the league, prove to yourself confidence wise you can with anybody in this league.  Respond after a loss.  If it can’t be a confidence booster, I don’t know what else could be," said SIU head basketball coach Barry Hinson.
SIU improves to 8-8 in the Missouri Valley. They close out their road schedule Wednesday at Evansville.
