CARBONDALE, Ill. - Anthony Beane, the Missouri Valley Conference's second leading scorer, scored 31 points to push SIU past the Drake University men's basketball team, 75-60, Saturday afternoon at SIU Arena.
Drake (6-20, 1-13 MVC) was led by junior Kale Abrahamson's (West Des Moines, Iowa) 15 points, his most in MVC play on 5-of-10 shooting. Ore Arogundade (Chicago, Ill.) continued his strong play with 11 points and a team-high nine rebounds to match a career high. Dominik Olejniczak (Torun, Poland) added 10 points on 5-of-5 shooting.
Beane's 31 points for SIU (20-7, 9-5 MVC) came on 12-of-20 shooting along with six rebounds. Bola Olaniyan added a 12-point, 10-rebound double-double in the win. The Salukis converted on 50.9 percent of their shots in the game and pulled away by converting at 55.6 percent clip in the second half.
"Anthony Beane is really good, he makes hard shots and one guy can't try to guard him," said Drake head coach Ray Giacoletti. "His athleticism hurt us tonight, but our guys fought."
Olejniczak scored eight of his points in the first half as he was 4-of-4 from the field. The Bulldogs took a 12-10 lead eight minutes into the period of a Nick McGlynn (Stoughton, Wis.) putback that capped a 9-0 run for the Bulldogs. But, SIU fired back with a 17-2 spurt that saw six different Salukis score to give SIU a 27-14 lead with 5:29 left in the period.
"The first half we were a mess offensively," Giacoletti said. "We couldn't get into anything and couldn't get an entry. They took it away and you have to play through that. We didn't do a good job of that and took bad shots."
Three points from Casey Schlatter (Iowa Falls, Iowa) in the final 90 seconds of the period pulled the Bulldogs within seven points but a three-point play from Mike Rodriquez gave SIU at 10-point, 37-27, lead at halftime.
Schlatter, making his second career start, finished the game with seven points, five rebounds and two assists.
Drake opened up the second half by shooting 54 percent from the field in the first eight minutes and got as close as six points, but Beane scored nine points during that span to keep SIU's lead in double-digits for the majority of the time. With less than 10 minutes left in the contest, a Beane three-pointer started an 11-3 run the built up a 16-point, 64-48, lead with 6:36 left.
A pair of baskets from Abrahamson with less than three minutes left twice got the Bulldogs within 11 points, but the Salukis, and especially Beane, continued to make shots to earn their 20th win of the season.
Drake returns home for its next contest on Wednesday, Feb. 17, against Evansville. Tipoff at the Knapp Center is scheduled for 8 p.m. with the game airing on MVC TV affiliates.
