• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Young leads No. 20 Southern Illinois past Bradley

Feb 8, 2007 - 5:36 AM CARBONDALE, Illinois (Ticker) -- Tony Young helped Southern Illinois continue its home dominance over Missouri Valley opponents.

Young scored 25 points on 9-of-17 shooting to lead the 20th-ranked Salukis to a 60-50 victory over Bradley during a Missouri Valley Conference showdown.

Southern Illinois (20-5, 11-3 MVC) held a slim 11-7 lead 10:41 into the first half before Young proceeded to nail three 3-pointers during a 19-5 spurt to expand the lead to 30-12 with 3:50 remaining.

The Salukis, who are 50-1 at home against conference foes since the start of the 2001-02 season, went to halftime with a 34-22 advantage.

Southern Illinois led by as many as 16 points midway through the second half but Bradley (16-10, 7-7) fought back with a 14-5 run highlighted by Zach Andrews' layup with 3:34 to play to pull within 52-47.

"Bradley is a tough team to deal with because they screen so much out front," Salukis coach Chris Lowery said. "They really make you rotate and run a long way to help. I thought our kids did a great job, they held them to 14 percent from three, which is something that team does really well."

The Salukis converted all six of their free throws over the final 1:32 to put the game out of reach.

"It feels good to win a game, but we've been there before," Young said. "We've been in big games before, we've been in close games before. We won, it's over with, we've got another bigger game on Saturday. Every game, you win and it's done, you've got to look forward and keep moving."

Randal Falker scored 13 points and grabbed 12 rebounds for the Salukis, who shot 40 percent (20-of-50) and outrebounded the Braves, 41-28.

Will Franklin scored 15 points and Andrews added 11 for Bradley, which shot 37 percent (18-of-49).

Southern Illinois' only home loss in league play came at the hands of Indiana State on February 1, 2006.