The No. 8 seed Indiana State Sycamores face an early test against the No. 9 Southern Illinois Salukis in the first game of the 2012 Missouri Valley Conference Tournament on Thursday night in St. Louis. The Salukis and Sycamores split their season series in the MVC, with Southern Illinois taking the first matchup at home back on January 13, and in the end the state getting their revenge with a 78-68 win on February 11.
The Sycamore hit all 12 of their three point shots in their February win and set an record for the most accurate team shooting performance from beyond the arc with at least 10 attempts. Jordan Printy made six threes, while Carl Richard, Dwayne Lathan and Lucas Eitel each added two makes of their own in that contest.
The Salukis suffered through a difficult conference regular season, winning just five of their 18 games in the MVC, but the slate is wiped clean for the postseason tournament and Southern Illinois gets another shot to redeem themselves.
The road to the championship will not be an easy one, as even a win on Thursday night would put them up against the No. 1 overall seed Wichita State Shockers on Friday.Mamadou Seck leads the team in points (13.3 PPG), rebounds (7.8 RPG) and assists (2.6 APG) and received honorable mention for the All-Conferene team in the Missouri Valley Conference on Tuesday. Dantiel Daniels was named to the All-Freshman team as well.
Missouri Valley Conference Tournament, Game 1
#8 Indiana State Sycamores (17-13, 8-10 MVC) vs. #9 Southern Illinois Salukis (8-22, 5-13 MVC)
Game Time, Date: 6:05 pm CT, Thursday, March 1, 2012
Location: Scottrade Center, St. Louis, MO
TV: -- MVC TV Network
Radio: Saluki Sports Network
The full tournament bracket can be found here.
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