<p class="MsoNormal" style=

“text-indent: 0in; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;”>Shooting 27 percent

from the field Wednesday night, the NIU men’s basketball team fell

61-49 at Southern Illinois.

<p class="MsoNormal" style=

“text-indent: 0in; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;”>Xavier Silas – the

nation’s leading scorer – scored 11 points while shooting 3-of-19

from the field.

<p class="MsoNormal" style=

“text-indent: 0in; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;”>“I don’t know that

he got frustrated,” said Patton of Silas. “He just had a man draped

on him all night and he found it difficult to get open. We still

needed other guys to step up, make shots and make

plays.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style=

“text-indent: 0in; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;”>Neither the Huskies

nor Saluki’s were able to crack the scoreboard until two and a half

minutes into the contest. After some early jockeying for the lead,

SIU pulled away and led by 11 points at the half.

<p class="MsoNormal" style=

“text-indent: 0in; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;”>NIU made a bid for a

comeback early in the second half, but after a Saluki run, the

deficit had reached 19 points.

<p class="MsoNormal" style=

“text-indent: 0in; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;”>Patton liked the way

his team played on Wednesday, but could have done without so many

misguided shots.

<p class="MsoNormal" style=

“text-indent: 0in; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;”>“It was a very

physical game. We did a lot of good things except putting the ball

in the basket,” Patton said. “I thought we took care of the

basketball, we only had 10 turnovers, and statistically we were

fine except for the shooting percentage.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style=

“text-indent: 0in; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;”>The Huskies will be

back in action on Dec. 27 when they travel to Columbia to take on

the Missouri Tigers.

<p class="MsoNormal" style=

“text-indent: 0in; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;”>