CARBONDALE - Earlier this week in practice, Southern Illinois men's assistant basketball coach Rodney Watson stressed the importance of possessions this time of year.

"It's like a big ball of gold!" Watson said, trying to add a little intensity to a drill Monday.

The Salukis took that advice to heart against Nevada, and may have helped themselves earn a few more practices at the end of the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament. SIU forced 21 turnovers and gave away a season-low six Saturday in a 74-49 thumping of the Wolf Pack.

It was Nevada's worst offensive showing of the season, and came in front of a national television audience.

"We wanted the play-hard chart to be through the roof, and we got 71 today, and that's the record," SIU coach Chris Lowery said. "To have an effort like that, where you get different guys, several guys, diving on the floor, a lot of tips on balls. Guys trying to take charges. We just had guys flying around, playing in a frenzy, so that was what made this game special."

SIU's 71 on the play-hard chart broke the previous record of 65 set against Indiana in 2002. The chart documents SIU's efforts of taking charges, tipping passes, and other non-statistical data.

In front of 7,321 fans at SIU Arena, the basketball seemed to be on a maroon-and-white string at times. With the ball, freshman Carlton Fay managed to bank in a 3-pointer midway through the first half. About 30 seconds later, on the floor without it, Fay managed to knock the ball off Nevada guard Marcelus Kemp's leg to get it back for SIU.

"We just stayed in the game," said Fay, whose eight points Saturday were three off his career high. "Coach said before the game that this was a game where the 50-50 plays had to go our way. We just came out, played hard, and just cut in all the time."

Joshua Bone helped the Salukis put the Wolf Pack away early during this ESPNU O'Reilly BracketBuster series game. Bone banged in three of his nine points with a bomb from the left side of the arc for SIU's first double-digit lead.

Bone's triple put the Salukis (16-12) in front, 27-15, with more than six minutes to go in the first half. The Wolf Pack (16-10) never really challenged the rest of the way. The lead got as big as 17 in the opening half and ballooned to 29 with 2:23 to play. Nevada got as close as 16 but fell for the third time in three tries against the Salukis.

SIU improved to 5-1 in BracketBuster games. Nevada lost for the first time in five tries. The Wolf Pack had won their previous four games in the series at home.

Randal Falker, Matt Shaw and Tyrone Green led SIU with 17, 13 and 11 points, respectively. JaVale McGee, Armon Johnson and Kemp paced the Wolf Pack with 12 apiece.

Kemp, a 6-foot-5 senior guard who was averaging 20.4 points per game, finished 5 of 14 from the field. McGee, a 7-foot center, finished 5 of 11 against the MVC's second-best scoring defense.

Lowery said his team looked as quick as it has all season, defensively.

"We're getting beat off the bounce less, which was our No. 1 Achilles' heel for most of the season," he said. "We couldn't contain the dribble at all. Now, it seems to be we're a step quicker in all of our rotations and our presses. Our traps were really good today. We really frustrated 'em and got them out of their comfort zones and didn't allow them to really go inside to the big guy that much."

The win gave SIU its longest winning streak of the season at four games. With two games left in the regular season, the Salukis now turn their attention to a road game at Bradley Tuesday night. Picked to win the league unanimously at the beginning of the season, SIU can finish no better than second. Currently in third place at 10-6, SIU is one game ahead of Creighton and the Braves.

With an RPI of 55, SIU's chances of an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament could hinge on its last two games and the league tournament. The Salukis are 11-2 at home this season with two wins over ranked teams. On the road they're just 2-9, but if the Salukis can cherish the basketball like they did Saturday, they could get more opportunities to improve their record away from Carbondale.

SIU has reached six straight NCAA Tournaments.

"We've been playing well lately, and we just need to try and keep this thing going," Shaw said. "That always goes along with us playing hard, playing our style of basketball. As long as we continue to do that, we're going to stay on this little road that we have going now."

todd.hefferman@thesouthern.com / 351-5087