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Cornelius, bench lead SIU past SLU

By Todd Hefferman, The Southern

Wednesday, December 3, 2008 11:34 PM CST

CARBONDALE - The amount of points from Southern Illinois University's bench Tuesday night wasn't surprising.

The Saluki men's basketball team (3-3) was averaging 23.2 points from its reserves entering Tuesday's game against Saint Louis, so SIU's 30-9 advantage wasn't that shocking. What was shocking was how quickly the bench got into the scoring column at SIU Arena.

Just under two minutes after subbing in with four other players, Saluki guard Justin Bocot scored his only three points of the night. About a minute later, forward Christian Cornelius scored two of his five first-half points on a drive to the bucket at the 10:50 mark. Cornelius tied a career-high with seven points in SIU's 64-48 victory and Kevin Dillard added nine off the bench to help the Salukis snap a three-game skid.

"Our bench has to shut their bench out. That's our game plan every time," SIU starter Tony Boyle said. "When our guys come in, they have to bring energy, and discipline, and hard work."

The reserves also hit the boards hard, grabbing 12 of the Salukis' 30 rebounds. That was with former reserve Ryan Hare, the team's second-leading rebounder, making his first career start.

"The bench was great. We had several guys that came in and contributed, and made sure we did things the right way," SIU coach Chris Lowery said. "They're so young, they just want to get going fast and do what they can do, and we just have to help them understand it's a 40-minute game, and learning how to play a different tempo will allow them to play harder on defense, like we need to play."

Saint Louis (2-4) got five points from Ruben Cotto and four from Willie Reed in the loss.

Lowery played 11 guys Tuesday night and can only hope his reserves continue to produce. The Salukis' next opponent, Charlotte, which comes to SIU Arena Saturday at 1 p.m., beat SIU 71-56 last season.

todd.hefferman@thesouthern.com / 351-5087