News out of Carbondale Saturday evening was not good for the NIU men’s basketball team.

In a game the Huskies never lead, Southern Illinois downed NIU 71-54 with the help of the Salukis Jerry Jones. Jones pumped in 22 points and picked up eight rebounds to pace SIU in front of 5,640 spectators at SIU Arena.

With the win, the Salukis bumped their season record to 2-0. NIU evens out its slate at 2-2. The Huskies wins came against Illinois Wesleyan and Montana State. Iona College was the other team to beat NIU.

Junior forward Donnell Thomas lead the Huskies with 16 points and 11 rebounds. Teammates Donald Whiteside and Antwon Harmon also scored in double figures. Whiteside, a 5-foot-10 guard out of Chicago’s Leo High School, chipped in 14 points, while Harmon contributed 15 points.

NIU’s field goal percentage for the game was 36 percent compared to the Salukis 50 percent. SIU picked up eight steals against NIU. NIU outrebounded SIU 35-31 despite the rebound combination of SIU’s Rick Shipley, who led the Salukis with nine boards, and Jones (8).

Whiteside shot from 3-point range six times for the Huskie and converted on four of them. The point guard leads the team in long-distance shooting this season with nine baskets. Thomas remains NIU’s top scorer with 59 points in three games (19.6 ppg). His best effort came in the loss to Iona, when the “D-Train” scored 25 points.

Other Salukis aiding the scoring cause were Shipley (13) and Freddie McSwain (11). Sterling Mahan did his share of helping out by picking up nine assists.

NIU has been plaqued with a lack of depth early in the season and the game against SIU was no different. The Huskies played eight players. Whiteside played the entire 40 minutes of the contest.

Last season SIU knocked off the Huskies at Chick Evans Field House 97-91. This year’s win gives SIU a 54-22 series lead in basketball.

NIU head coach Jim Molinari and his troops take on Nebraska Tuesday at the fieldhouse. The two teams met last year in Lincoln, Neb. and the Cornhuskers pulled out a 71-56 victory. Game time is set for 7:30 p.m. Before the men’s game, the NIU women’s team takes on Northwestern University at 5 p.m.