C0|db|00ded wrote:I never thought I would live long enough to see that kind of offense out of an SIU team. It was refreshing and quite scary. Shocker fans would like to say it was our defense that allowed SIU's offensive output, but that would not be truthful. SIU was simply unconscious. We defended harder and harder and then finally just flattened a guy who was shooting a baseline jumper from about 15ft.. of course the ball went in and then he completed the And One. In times like these, a team of winners will maintain their composure until the luck wears off and then take control. That is exactly what the Shockers did.
Is the scraggly little guy from SIU that nearly put up 30 really that good? He couldn't miss tonight.
T
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I agree with you about SIU's shot making in the first half. Even their prayer shots were going down. Everything was going down except blocked shots. A Doggie missed a shot, got his rebound, had his back to the basket, was falling down, body was twisted like a pretzel, threw the ball up in the air over his head and I be damned, the ball clanked around and fell in.
The Doggies are short, but they are pretty athletic and they play hard for Coach Hinson.
The sole difference in the game was the first 2.0 minutes in the second half, when the Shocks over came the Doggies 9 point lead and took the lead by one point. This rally cut out their heart and deflated them.
Nevertheless, the Doggies never quit and they cut the lead to 2 with less than a minute to go.
I think Jackson is a pretty good player. He was a handful for the Shocks all night. If the Doggies had their best player available, the Shocks might be looking at an L on the scorecard. Jackson is very effective, when he dribble penetrates. As I said, he is a load.
Swan, who is shooting about 50% from the free throw line for last year and this year, went 6-6 from the line. As I said, everything was going down.
If the blocked shots are disregarded, the Doggies shot 58.9% for the game. That is smokin'. If the Shocks had not blocked 11 shots or more, then it would have been tits up for the Shocks.
One last thang. The Doggies were relentless in attacking the basket and they were pretty damn successful in scoring or drawing fouls. Fortunately, the blocks helped minimize the damage.
I had visions of the 2011 game in which the Shocks were greatly favored and the Doggies upset the Shocks. The loss caused the Shocks to lose a conference championship.
The next game in Carbondale will be nasty.
