KISSIMMEE, Fla. -- Southern Illinois scored the first 11 points of the game and held off a furious second-half charge from UTSA men's basketball, to post a 71-58 win over the Roadrunners on the opening day of the Sunshine Slam, on Friday night at the Silver Spurs Arena.
UTSA (0-2) fell behind out of the gate as Southern Illinois (2-0) raced out to an 11-point lead. The Roadrunners saw the lead balloon to 20 in the first half but started the second half on a furious 17-6 run to cut the lead to just four.
Junior guard Jhivvan Jackson – the 2018-19 Conference USA scoring champion – led the Roadrunners with 32 points, adding five rebounds. It marked the eighth game of Jackson's career with at least 30 points.
Junior Keaton Wallace finished with 11 points, four assists and three rebounds. Wallace drilled a pair of triples, tying the UTSA program mark for career 3-pointers (198), which equaled Keith Horne's program mark.
Senior Byron Frohnen grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds, totaling four points and three steals in 33 minutes.
UTSA was outscored 39-25 in the first half and owned a 35-33 advantage in the second half. SIU finished the game shooting 47.1 percent from the field, making 7 of 22 3-pointers. UTSA was held to 30.4 shooting from the field (17 of 56) and was 9 of 28 from behind the arc.
The Roadrunners had a 38-33 advantage in rebounds but were outscored in the paint by SIU 30-12 and were forced into 19 turnovers.
Southern Illinois was paced by a 24-point game from Marcus Domask. Barret Benson had 17 points and six boards, while Aaron Cook added 19 points and four steals.
The Roadrunners will return to action on Saturday, taking on Oakland at 4:30 p.m. CT at the Silver Spurs Arena. The game will be streamed live on FLOHoops.tv and will be broadcast live on the Roadrunners Sports Network, with Jay Howard voicing the action live on The Bull 93.3/92.5 FM and online at goUTSA.com.
Southern Illinois opened the game with the first 11 points until the Roadrunners got on the board with 10 straight points from Jackson, including a pair of 3-pointers. After the second media timeout, Wallace sank his first triple of the game as the Roadrunners cut the lead to seven. SIU raced out of the break and forced a UTSA timeout, with the Salukis owning a 27-13 lead.
The lead ballooned to 20 with five minutes remaining in the half. Jackson then got into a grove, drilling a pair of 3-pointers, including a trey in transition to cut the lead to 35-23 and force a SIU timeout with just over a minute left in the first. SIU took the lead to 39-25 at halftime and finished the half shooting 51.9 percent, while UTSA was held to 26.7 percent.
The Roadrunners raced out of the second half, getting baskets in the paint from Jackson and Bior and a triple from Barisic to cut the lead to single digits at 45-36. The run continued with a pair of baskets from Frohnen, with UTSA getting it down to 45-42 with 12:15 left. A three from SIU's Cook and a jumper from Benson stretched the lead back to six but UTSA continued to fight, getting a triple from Barisic to narrow it to 52-49 with 5:36 left in regulation.
The Salukis answered, going on a run to take the lead to double figures as the clock ticked down to 1:17 and were able to hold on for the win.
- UTSA -
