By Luis C. Medina
First, I’d like to reintroduce the Beyond the Stat Sheet blog, where numbers matter. Important statistics will be highlighted in bold-faced type.
Now, on to business.
Coming into its game against Saint Louis University, the SIU men’s basketball team struggled on the defensive end. It was coming off three straight losses in which its opponents (Duke, UCLA & Western Kentucky) averaged 79.6 points per game. It looked as if “Floorburn U” was a blip in the rearview mirror, but the Salukis stepped up their game and took it to the Billikens.
Granted, the SLU offense isn’t going to be confused with the Harlem Globetrotters as it averages only 56.2 points per game, but it is encouraging that SIU was able to shutdown its L-squared offensive attack led by guards Kevin Lisch and Tommie Liddell III.
Lisch and Liddell average 14.2 and 12.8 points per game, respectively, and they got theirs Tuesday night. But Chris Lowery’s bunch shut down their teammates, holding the Billikens almost 8 points below their season average.
Prior to the Salukis’ match up against SLU, they had allowed opposing offenses to average 72.8 points per game. A far cry from past SIU squads that were defending teams as soon as they got into Carbondale city limits. By only allowing 48 points to the Billikens, it dropped its opponents PPG four points as it allowed 24.8 points less than it had allowed coming into the game.
And while the SIU offense isn’t going to drop a hunny (or a hundred for those of you grammatically inclined) on its opponents, keeping its opponents off the scoreboard is as important as scoring.
I know my classic saying is “You can’t win if you don’t score”, but you can’t win if the other team scores more than you do.
