SIUE men's basketball team loses to Northwestern

EVANSTON, Ill. – Northwestern knocked down seven second-half three-pointers and defeated SIUE men's basketball team 81-56 Saturday at Welsh-Ryan Arena.

SIUE fell to 1-7 with the loss. Northwestern is 7-1.

"Our guys did some positive things," SIUE Head Coach Jon Harris said. "I thought our guys battled. It's the first time all year I can say we scratched and clawed start to finish. That is a positive step."

Offensively, the Cougars tied a season-high with 14 assists, while also knocking down five three-pointers. SIUE hit 42 percent (5-12) of its three-point attempts marking a season high.

"The guys moved the ball," Harris said. "We've talked about trusting each other and letting the offense come to them. Most defenses don't want to play against ball reversal."

Northwestern led by nine (35-26) at halftime and then, in a sign of things to come, got back-to-back three-pointers from Aaron Falzon to start the second half and extend its lead to 15 points.

The Wildcats outscored SIUE 46-30 in the second half while shooting 66.7 percent (18-27) from the field in the period. Northwestern was 30-58 (51.7 percent) from the field for the game.

Falzon finished 5 for 10 from long range and was second for the Wildcats in scoring with 17 points. Alex Olah led Northwestern with 21 points and eight rebounds. Bryant McIntosh scored 11 points and added eight assists.

Burak Eslik was the only SIUE player to score in double figures. He led the Cougars with 13 points. Three players: Grant Fiorentinos, Devin Thornton and Keenan Simmons each scored eight points. The eight points are a season and career high for Thornton, who knocked down a pair of three-pointers.

Simmons, who made his first career start, tied his season-high with eight points, added seven rebounds and a block.

"Keenan did some really good things," Harris said. "He battled defensively. He is a little undersized for the position but he's a guy that plays hard. What he lacks in size he makes up for in effort."

C.J. Carr scored six points and tied his career high with six assists. He turned the ball over only once.

Saturday's game wrapped up the Cougars' busiest week of the year, having completed four games in a seven-day stretch.

"Guys have done a good job," Harris said. "They fought through this tough stretch of games. Now they get a chance to give their bodies some time to recover. We'll try to build off the things we did today."

SIUE continues the three-game road swing with a Wednesday game at SIU Carbondale.

"We have four games after today before going into Ohio Valley Conference play," Harris added. "For us, it's about establishing an identity and figuring out what are we going to be moving forward. We started to see some of that today like playing and competing from start to finish and moving the ball on offense. Our assist to turnover ratio was as good as it's been all year."