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Southern Illinois looks to avoid season sweep against Bradley

Feb 7, 2007 - 4:54 PM Bradley (16-9) at No. 20 Southern Illinois (19-5) 8:35 pm EST

CARBONDALE, Illinois (Ticker) -- Bradley has not won at Southern Illinois in six years, and breaking that streak is not going to be easy.

The Braves look to add a big road victory to their NCAA tournament resume Wednesday when they visit the 20th-ranked Salukis in a Missouri Valley Conference showdown.

Bradley (16-9, 7-6 MVC) beat Southern Illinois, 48-46, on January 10. The Braves will look to sweep the Salukis but will have to win at SIU Arena for the first time since January 10, 2001.

Will Franklin scored 18 points in the first meeting with the Salukis, including the game-winning basket with 0.5 seconds to go for the Braves, who ended a two-game slide with a 70-62 victory at Illinois State on Saturday.

Southern Illinois (19-5, 10-3) will be motivated not only by its previous loss to Bradley but also by its recent return to the national rankings. The Salukis entered the top 25 on Monday for the first time in nearly two years.

"It's a nice reward for our players, who have worked extremely hard to achieve this degree of success," Salukis coach Chris Lowery said. "At the same time, we can't become complacent, because we're in the heart of our conference schedule right now, and every game is critical toward the success of our season."

The success the Saluki's have attained included a dominant run at home. Southern Illinois is 50-1 at home against conference opponents since the start of the 2001-02 season and 76-3 at home overall in that span.