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After Harms’ impressive play, his coach at SCC, Bill Campbell, gave Newton a call. “We organized a visit and fell in love with [Caleb] and his parents and what he was saying,” Newton said. “He came across as a good hardworking kid who wanted a chance to play Division I. He’s proved himself as one, too. He’s been a great leader for this team.” Freshman golfer Charles Hawn said it would be difficult to replace a leader like Harms. “He’s a great captain, and is always
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Jackson said every conference game is going to be a war. “Playing in the Valley, it’s always going to be physical,” Jackson said. The Salukis started and ended the first half on 6-0 runs. Everything in between those runs was not how SIU wanted to play. The Salukis were 9-of-28 from the field and only had one 3-pointer. UNI hit four 3-pointers with two coming from sophomore guard Matt Bohannon who added two more in the second half to finish with 12 points in the game. Panther junior forward Seth Tuttle had 13 points in the first-half to lead both teams. SIU fell behind late in the first half. The Panthers went on a 13-3 run until two minutes remained in the half. The Salukis scored the last six points of the half to cut the UNI lead to 36-25 at halftime.
there for you if you need anything,” Hawn said. “He is the one who lets us know about practices and what needs to be done. He has a great attitude about everything. If things (on the course) aren’t going his way, he finds a way to grind out a good score.” It is not known who will be the next captain of the golf team but according to Newton, they will still play a big role on the team. Harms said he would not only miss being a part of the team but the Carbondale community as well. “Being a student-athlete at this school is cool,” Harms said. “There’s a lot of history here. I enjoy Carbondale, hanging out with teammates and buddies.”
Newton said he would miss Harms not just as a golfer, but also as a person. “I’ll miss his friendship,” Newton said. “He relieves a lot of my anxiety handling the team, because I don’t have to worry about the kids as much. He’s very truthful, very level headed, very competitive. I’ll miss all those traits.” Harms will tee off his final season as a Saluki golfer Feb., 16 in Philadelphia, Miss.
The second half was a different story for the Salukis. SIU ended the game on a 16-2 and held the Panthers without a basket for the final 4:49 of the game. Sophomore guard Anthony Beane said the team’s communication was better and everyone did what they needed to do to pull out the win. “I thought it was really good how we stuck together, we were talking” Beane said. “Everybody was alert on defense.” The shooting of the Salukis in the second half was vital to their comeback. SIU hit four of five 3-pointers and converted 9 of 10 free throws in the final half. Hinson said his team was able to keep the Panthers from scoring late in the game as well as put points on the board. “We got to a point where we were able to get two or three stops in a row and we were converting on the other end,” Hinson said. “Which made a huge difference.” Two freshmen played quality
minutes for the Salukis in the win. Tyler Smithpeters and Sean O’Brien made contributions on both sides of the court. Hinson said O’Brien could grow into a special player. “I’ve said this all along and I’ll stick with it,” Hinson said. “I think Sean O’Brien has a chance to be an all-league type player before he graduates from SIU.” The Salukis will leave the comfort of SIU Arena for a battle with the Bradley University Braves Friday. Beane said this win is great but they cannot get to hung-up on it. “It gives us more confidence. We just have to stay humble and got to keep working hard and listening to the coaches,” Beane said. “We can’t get too high or too low, we just got to stay ready and stay prepared.”
Tyler Davis can be reached at tdavis@dailyegyptian.com, on Twitter @tdavis_de on Twitter, 536-3311 ext. 269.
Tyler Dixon can be reached at tdixon@dailyegyptian.com, @tdixon_de on Twitter, or 536-3311 ext. 256.
Northwestern upend No. 23 Illinois BRIAN SANDALOW Associated Press EVAN S TO N — Chris Collins didn’t expect his team to score only 49 points in his first conference victory. Still, he wasn’t complaining. Tre Demps scored 11 points and made three late 3-pointers to lead Northwestern to a 49-43 upset of instate rival No. 23 Illinois on Sunday night. Drew Crawford added 14 points and JerShon Cobb had 11 for the Wildcats (8-9, 1-3 Big Ten) in Collins’ his first Big Ten win. Northwestern had lost four straight overall and three in a row in conference play, but snapped both streaks thanks to its defense. Following a one-point loss to DePaul on Dec. 27 to end nonconference play, the Wildcats lost by 27 to Wisconsin, 23 to Michigan, and 26 to Iowa before beating Illinois and holding them to 28.1 percent shooting from the floor. The Wildcats beat the Fighting Illini despite shooting only 37.2 percent from the floor. “That was a special night for us. Obviously, thinking of getting my first Big Ten win I never thought my team would have only 49 points,” Collins said. “I always liked to have 49 myself when I played.” No Wildcats player came close to that, but Demps helped them put away the victory. After leading by as many as eight in the second half, Northwestern
allowed Illinois to tie the game at 27 on Kendrick Nunn’s layup with11:31 left. Demps, though, hit three 3-pointers in three minutes, the last giving Northwestern a 43-36 lead with 3:28 to go. Cobb’s layup with 1:53 left gave the Wildcats a 45-36 advantage. Illinois thought it cut the lead to 45-42 with 55.9 left, but Joseph Bertrand was called for charging, wiping out his basket. The Illini got to within 45-43 when Rayvonte Rice hit a 3-pointer with 15 seconds left, but Crawford hit two free throws with 14.3 seconds left and Northwestern finished the upset. “I’ve been at the gym all day for the last two days and I was just waiting for a good look. When I hit the first one I got a good rhythm going,” Demps said. “But the main thing was that my teammates believed in me.” No one on Illinois got much of anything going. Tracy Abrams had 13 and Rice had eight for the Fighting Illini (13-4, 2-2), who have lost two straight after four consecutive wins. Rice, who entered as the conference’s leading scorer at 18.8 points per game, didn’t get his first basket until there was 8:39 left in the second half. The redshirt junior guard was 2 of 11 from the floor and missed all five of his first-half shots. He had scored 19 points on 7-of-21 shooting in a 95-70 loss to No. 4 Wisconsin in Madison on Wednesday.
Northwestern held Illinois to a season low in points without junior guard Dave Sobolewski, who missed the game due to a concussion he sustained in practice. “Shots didn’t fall that guys normally make,” Abrams said. During their loss to the Badgers — the Fighting Illini’s most lopsided defeat of the season — they shot just 31.6 percent from the floor and had just Rice and Bertrand score in double figures. That didn’t improve much Sunday, when Illinois made 18 of 64 shots. “I felt like we did not make enough plays on offense. I didn’t feel like we were nearly aggressive enough. I thought we were way too tentative offensively,” Illinois coach John Groce said. “We’re going to have to figure that out pretty quickly. I feel like it’s been that way now for a couple games.” Ranked for the first time since Jan. 14-20, 2013, Illinois got off to a slow start in the lone meeting between the in-state rivals this season. The IIllini shot 6 of 31 from the floor (19.4 percent) and missed all eight of their 3-pointers in the first half and trailed 22-15 at halftime. The 15 points were the Illini’s fewest in a half this season and the secondfewest Northwestern has allowed over 20 minutes. Northwestern couldn’t pull away in the first half, shooting 33.3 percent. Despite that, the Wildcats were still able to give Collins an important win.