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CHICAGO (AP) -- Nearly blown out, Southern Illinois changed
course in a hurry. Now it's headed to the round of 16 after the
school's biggest victory since the days of Walt Frazier.
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It was Upset City in Chicago, baby -- Southern Illinois got a break playing at the United Center in Chicago. Coach Jim Harrick and Georgia had a tough matchup against a tough-minded Southern Illinois club. Jermaine Dearman (25 points) was a star of stars for the Salukis in both victories.
Southern Illinois was down 19 early and it looked like a blowout, but Dearman and Co. kept battling back bit by bit. With strong defense and good shot selection -- the Salukis didn't panic -- they whittled away at the lead and earned a hard-fought victory. Now they move on to the Sweet 16 with two other double-digit seeds, 10th-seeded Kent State (in the South) and 12th-seeded Missouri (in the West).
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The 11th-seeded Salukis erased a 19-point first-half deficit and
stunned No. 3 Georgia 77-75 Sunday in the East Regional, thanks in
large part to Jermaine Dearman's 25 points.
Southern Illinois (28-7) faces Connecticut (26-6) in the East
Regional semifinals at Syracuse, N.Y., on Friday. The second-seeded
Huskies held on to beat N.C. State 77-74.
"Our new goal now is to beat UConn," Dearman said.
"We set team goals all year. We said we wanted to make the NCAA
Tournament, we wanted to win our conference and we wanted to go to
the Sweet 16. We've reached all our previous team goals."
With chants of "S-I-U! S-I-U!" reverberating through the
United Center, SIU overcame a 30-11 hole and makes its first
appearance in the final 16 since the NCAAs expanded to 64 teams in
1985.
SIU has a grand total of three victories in the tournament; an
upset of No. 6 Texas Tech in the first round Friday was the
Salukis' first NCAA victory since they won once in 1977.
Ten years before that, Frazier -- who would go on to NBA stardom
with the New York Knicks -- led the Salukis to the 1967 NIT title.
With SIU nursing a two-point lead with 25 seconds to go, Dearman
missed a shot but got his own rebound.
Georgia's Jonas Hayes was then called for an intentional foul --
much to the chagrin of animated coach Jim Harrick -- and Rolan
Roberts made the second of two free throws to give the Salukis a
74-71 lead with 14 seconds left.
"I've seen that happen at least 15 times this year and I've
never seen an intentional foul called," Harrick said. "That
bothers me when it's so inconsistent. If they're going to call it,
they ought to call it all the time. "
Southern Illinois retained possession and Brad Korn, fouled by
Steve Thomas, hit two free throws for a five-point lead.
After a basket by Georgia's Rashad Wright cut it back to three,
the Bulldogs took a timeout.
SIU freshman Darren Brooks, who scored 13 of his 16 points in
the second half, hit the first of two free throws for a 77-73 lead.
After Wright drove again for a layup, the Salukis inbounded the
ball and ran out the clock.
"We should have kept the pressure on them. They made a great
comeback," Wright said. "They played good defense, good pressure,
and they tried to make us do things we didn't want to do."
Jarvis Hayes, Jonas' twin, led Georgia (22-10) with 26 points
and 11 rebounds. Wright added 16 points as the Bulldogs lost
despite a 45-27 rebounding edge.
When Jarvis Hayes banked in a 3-pointer, Georgia had roared
ahead 30-11 with an aggressive early defense and physical play on
the inside.
But Southern Illinois wasn't about to be blown out.
The Salukis went to work on defense, and Dearman provided the
offense. The 6-foot-8 forward scored SIU's final 10 points in a
startling 24-8 run, punctuating the spurt with a dunk as the
Salukis closed to within 38-35 at halftime.
"A lot of them were tip-ins. I looked up at the score and we
were down 18, 19 points. I knew I just had to play hard," Dearman
said.
"They were the aggressor early. We became the aggressor, and
then Jermaine got us back into to it," SIU coach Bruce Weber said.
"We set a goal -- it sounded crazy back in the spring -- to make
the Sweet 16. Right now the Southern Illinois Salukis are going to
be there." | 
Intentionally Mad
Moving On