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New York nightmare

By Todd Hefferman, The Southern

Thursday, November 20, 2008 11:05 PM CST

NEW YORK - Forced to make a defensive choice at Madison Square Garden, Southern Illinois University's men's basketball team took the hack instead of the immediate hoop against No. 10 Duke.

The Blue Devils responded with an 85-percent effort at the stripe, and swung the Salukis into tonight's 4 p.m. consolation championship of the 2K Sports Classic with an 83-58 victory. Duke (4-0) made 40-of-47 at the free-throw line to 12-of-19 for SIU (2-1), and advanced to meet the winner of Thursday's late game between No. 4 UCLA and Michigan.

SIU will play the loser of Thursday night's game tonight for the consolation championship on ESPN2. The winners square off at approximately 6 p.m.

"The problem was we were fouling because we were in bad position," SIU coach Chris Lowery said. "We were taking charges and doing things we needed to do in the first half, then we got caught up in 'Now I've got to guard my man.' We didn't play the type of team defense that allows us to help and recover."

Gerald Henderson led all scorers with 20 points for Duke, who finished the last 6:40 on a 20-8 run. Henderson made 5 of 10 from the field, including 4 of 5 3-pointers, and added 6 of 7 free throws in 26 minutes.

Carlton Fay, who played a season-high 31 minutes, scored 17 to lead SIU. Guard Kevin Dillard added 10 more, as the Salukis fell to 1-3 lifetime against the Blue Devils.

SIU trailed by only six at the break, and after falling behind 10 with 16:29 to go, climbed back to within five after an 8-foot jumper from Fay. Duke hiked the lead to eight after a spectacular save by Henderson near the Blue Devil bench, and put the game away shortly after a Tony Boyle intentional foul.

Henderson leaped out of bounds near the Duke bench after a loose ball and flung it back toward the rim before he landed. Duke center Brian Zoubek and SIU center Nick Evans both went for the jump ball, but it was batted around right into the hands of Duke guard Nolan Smith. Smith went right to the basket, and fouled out Evans with 7:59 to go.

Smith's two free throws put the Blue Devils up 57-49, and was the beginning of a deadly series of events.

Fay drew his fourth foul on a drive by Kyle Singler. Shortly after Singler's free throws, he stole the ball at the other end, and threw down a dunk before Boyle knocked him to the ground. No foul was initially called, but Boyle was eventually tagged with an intentional foul, fouling him out of the game. Singler pushed the lead to 63-49 with his two free throws, and it only got worse for the Salukis.

Duke won the rebound battle 42-28 despite eight boards from Ryan Hare. Zoubek and guard Jon Scheyer had six rebounds apiece for Duke.

SIU can now only hope for a split out of its trip to the nation's most famous basketball arena. The Salukis are 1-2 against Michigan and 0-2 against the Bruins.

"We really don't have time to dwell on this. We're going to have a tough opponent (today), regardless if it's Michigan or UCLA, so we kind of have to put this past us right now, and it's going to be tough to do, but that's what we have to do," SIU point guard Bryan Mullins said. "We have to be ready to play right from the start."

todd.hefferman@thesouthern.com / 351-5087