Salukis show their teeth

CARBONDALE - Timing is often everything and the timing of Bradley's Missouri Valley Conference basketball game against Southern Illinois on Tuesday night couldn't have been worse.

The Salukis, reeling from back-to-back MVC losses at Drake and Illinois State, returned home with a vengeance, handing the Braves a 77-64 loss before 5,013 at SIU Arena.

The defending MVC champions were also fresh from a brutally honest tongue-lashing from their coach, Chris Lowery, in a Monday night team meeting.

"I told them they should be ashamed of themselves," Lowery said. "We're too experienced, too mature, too old to be acting like this. We're much better than what we're showing.

"We have 10 kids on this team who played in a Sweet 16 game last year and they need to act like it. So our confidence level should never waver."

Bradley's confidence was certainly wavering during the first half, committing a dozen turnovers against the smothering SIU defense that turned the miscues into 19 points and a 45-27 lead.

"Southern is very good at creating offense from their defense," said BU coach Jim Les. "We made some soft passes and had soft penetration."

The Braves' interior defense was also quite porous in the first half.

With SIU leading only 15-13 eight minutes in, the Braves allowed five consecutive field goals on either post layups or rebound baskets that extended the margin to double digits.

A big part of the home team's first-half success was the play of freshman forward Carlton Fay, the 2007 Journal Star Small-School Player of the Year from Putnam County High School.

Fay, who has been sporadic so far this season, scored nine of his 11 points in the first 20 minutes, exceeding his season high for a game.

"Carlton is slowly coming along," Lowery said. "We hoped it would be earlier, but we're glad it's now because it's conference."

Bradley (7-9, 0-4) cut into the lead in the second half, using a 7-0 run that ended on Jeremy Crouch's 3-pointer at 14:19 to make it 50-38.

Southern Illinois (7-8, 2-2) gradually built the margin back to 18.

But the Braves chipped away, stifling the Salukis' inside game with a 2-3 zone along with aggressive offense by Andrew Warren, who closed with 18 points, including 12 of 12 from the free-throw line.

Two Warren charity tosses at 4:16 brought the Braves to within 64-56. But the Salukis converted at the line themselves in the final minutes and BU would get no closer.

"I continue to be encouraged by certain aspects," Les said. "We had better attention on the boards (SIU led 28-25). But we haven't put 40 minutes together."

The BU coach was more concerned about another phase of the game.

"I don't like our mental approach with this team and I let them know that," he said. "There's got to be a belief when you walk on the court that you can win a game. I don't believe this team believes that.

"If we're going to sit around and wait for No. 20 (injured Daniel Ruffin) to ride through the door and save us, that's not going to happen. That's more disappointing than anything that's gone on execution-wise."

The loss was the sixth in a row for Bradley, the most since 2003-04 when the Braves lost eight in a row with leading scorer Philip Gilbert sidelined.

The 0-4 start in the league is the program's worst since the 1991-92 team - Jim Molinari's first at BU - began 0-5.

"Let's be honest," Lowery said. "Daniel Ruffin wasn't here and they have a freshman (Sam Maniscalco) playing a lot of minutes. Daniel's a Sweet 16 point guard and one of the best players in our league. So we understand him not being in the game had a lot to do with it."

Dave Reynolds can be reached at 686-3210 or at dreynolds@pjstar.com.