CARBONDALE -Open look after open look, Southern Illinois simply couldn't make a shot. Eric Gordon and Indiana surely didn't suffer the same problem.

Because of that, SIU's 15-game home winning streak is over.

For the second straight game, the Salukis were unable to hang with a more athletic opponent from a BCS conference. SIU's offense sputtered for much of the game, allowing the No. 15 Hoosiers to pull away for a 64-51 win Saturday night at SIU Arena.

SIU had chances to make a run at Indiana, but simply couldn't make a key shot.

"That's probably an understatement," SIU coach Chris Lowery said afterward, shaking his head.

For the game, the Salukis shot just 37.5 percent. More evident was the 1-for-14 effort from 3-point range, with many of those looks wide-open. Every opportunity the Salukis had to cut into IU's lead, or to get the sold-out crowd fired up, the chance simply bounced off the rim.

Even one of the simplest shots in basketball, the free throw, wouldn't fall for SIU on Saturday. The Salukis were just 8-of-15 from the foul line, including a disappointing 2-for-7 showing from Randal Falker, who seemed to put his free-throw woes behind him in the first few games of the season.

"We got a lot of good open looks," SIU point guard Bryan Mullins said. "I don't really remember us taking a bad shot throughout the game. ? We just missed some shots."

IU, meanwhile, made plenty of big shots when it counted -and most of those were made by Gordon, the freshman wunderkind.

The highly-touted shooting guard, perhaps best known for committing to Illinois only to change his mind and become a Hoosier, showed why his recruiting decisions caused such a fuss. After being held in check for the first 10 minutes, he scored a game-high 22 points over the final 30.

Many of those points were backbreakers to the Salukis. Seemingly anytime the Salukis got within striking distance, Gordon made a play. Get him in transition, and he would drive by his defender and make a runner. Give him an inch to breathe, and he would drain a jumper. Three of his four 3-pointers came from NBA range, creating a frustrating end to some otherwise solid defensive possessions for the Salukis.

"I think we took them out of their offense pretty well," Mullins said. "But it doesn't feel good when we're buzzing around and closing out on people, and they make an NBA three."

In all, the Hoosiers made eight 3-pointers, several of them "daggers," as Mullins put it. Still, Lowery praised his team's defensive performance, one that was a notable improvement over last weekend's debacle against Southern California. Many of the shots IU hit -particularly Gordon -were tough and well guarded.

Many of SIU's shots, meanwhile, were wide-open. But they still wouldn't fall.

SIU's plan was to work the ball inside to Falker, and that certainly worked early on. He scored nine points and had five rebounds in the first half, keeping SIU within six points and giving IU posts fits.

In the second half, though, the Hoosiers did everything in their power to limit Falker's touches, and he largely became a non-factor. So the Salukis turned to a different plan, where they would dribble-drive and kick the ball outside to an open shooter.

The plan worked perfectly -except for the shooting part.

The Salukis got open shots for Joshua Bone and Matt Shaw, their two best outside threats. But they combined to make just 1-of-11 3-pointers, and finished with a combined 13 points. Falker was the only Saluki to reach double digits, with 12 points.

"Right now, we're not making the easiest plays," Lowery said. "We're wide open, and we can't make wide-open shots."

The Salukis missed their first 13 3-point attempts, before Matt Shaw finally connected with 1:03 remaining. The shot gave remaining SIU fans a brief glimmer of hope, cutting Indiana's lead to nine points, but the Salukis got no closer the rest of the way.

After a stellar first three games, the Salukis (3-2) have scored just 96 total points in the past two. And with more tough games on the horizon, they desperately need to find a way to shoot out of their slump.

"We did a great job of guarding them," Lowery said. "We made them make tough shots, and we couldn't make easy shots, and that was the difference."

rob.crow@thesouthern.com

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