The Tennessee State men’s basketball team tasted defeat for the first time this season, falling on the road 57-44 to Southern Illinois on Thursday evening.
Tennessee State brought their chops on the defensive side of the ball, holding SIU to 38% from the field and a frigid 14% from downtown , but turnovers and their own misfires from the field proved to be the Tigers’ undoing, as they had 17 turnovers. The Tigers left their shooting eye in Nashville, connecting on just 28.3% of their field goal attempts, 21.1% from downtown and only 50% from the charity stripe.
TSU stumbled of the gates down 25-12 and it appeared this game could be on the path to getting out of hand early but the Tigers showed fight, using a 12-0 run to pull within a single point at 25-24 on Adong Makoui’a layup with 4:39 to go in the opening half. Southern Illinois responded with eight straight points to go 33-24 and would ultimately take a 36-27 lead at the half.
While not not fluidly played, the second half was a hard-fought defensive struggle. Despite the Tigers holding the Salukis to just 21 points and forcing 15 turnovers, Tennessee State was able to capitalize as they only scored 17 points in the second half, committed nine turnovers and experienced an over ten stretch without a single field goal.
TSU only had two players in double figures, Jr. Clay with 12 on 4-13 FG and Dedric Boyd’s 10 on 3-10 shooting. The Tigers had not a single player shoot above 50% who took more than 4 shots.
Next up for Penny Collins’ ball club is a pair of games in San Juan Capistrano, California in the SoCal Challenge, the first against Cal State Northridge Monday with a 2:00 pm tip and a Wednesday tilt versus High Point or Central Michigan.
Next Game: vs. Cal State Northridge 11/21/2022 | 2:00 PM FloHoops 102.1 The Ville
Team Statistics
| Game Stats | TSU | SIU |
|---|---|---|
| FG% | .283 | .362 |
| 3FG% | .211 | .143 |
| FT% | .500 | .870 |
| RB | 35 | 41 |
| TO | 17 | 17 |
| STL | 9 | 8 |
