Hunter Whitecotton for River Radio Sports Central
CARBONDALE – The SIU Men’s basketball team survived a late second half push from Valparaiso to notch its first Missouri Valley Conference win of the season, defeating the Beacons 75-70.
The Salukis’ bench provided the spark. Led by Davion Sykes, who returned to the bench after starting the previous three games, along with Jalen Haynes and Isaiah Stafford who all notched seven points apiece, SIU’s bench outscored the Valparaiso’s bench 30-13.
The ten Salukis who played all logged more than 10 minutes, but none exceeded 30 — a rarity for SIU head coach Scott Nagy, who said he traditionally shortens rotations. “I haven’t done that, it’s usually been about seven guys,” Nagy said. “With this team, we’ve seen time and time again — it’s another reason why we wanted to put Davion back on the bench. He was playing so well coming off the bench, and he gave us such a lift when he came in.”
The game was an offensive struggle early. Southern’s defense limited Valparaiso to 18.8% shooting in the first half and just 1-for-9 from beyond the arc. SIU wasn’t great offensively either, shooting just 34% in the first half, but the Saluki reserves closed the half with a 13-2 run, highlighted by back to back dunks including an alley oop from Stafford to Sykes for a 36-25 halftime lead.
“It felt really good,” said Saluki freshman Jalen Haynes. “We’ve all been telling Davion to get up and dunk one in game so for him to end that half like really gave us a boost going into half. As for the tech, I just told him “Merry Christmas and happy new year.”
A technical foul on Haynes allowed the Beacons to open the second half at the free-throw line, trimming the deficit to 10 and briefly slowing Southern’s momentum. “We have to start acting like winners,” said Nagy. “To have a run like that just to go down and get a technical is frustrating. I wanted to go in and be happy at halftime but instead I’m fired up because of that.”
The Salukis pushed the lead to as many as 13 with just more than nine minutes remaining, but the Beacons steadily closed the gap, cutting it to three with 1:30 left. Southern found the answer when Damien Mayo Jr. knocked down a 3-pointer — his only points of the night — to extend the lead to six with a minute remaining. Valparaiso never drew closer than two possessions the rest of the way.
While Nagy praised the win, he was still frustrated with his club’s free-throw shooting, going just 25-42 (59%). “We have to shoot free throws better,” Nagy said. “We had 13 more free throws than them, and we barely won the game. For us to win close games we’re gonna have to shoot 85-90% from the stripe and honestly there’s no reason we shouldn’t.”
Prince Aligbe and Quel’Ron House led the scoring effort with 12 points apiece. Rolyns Aligbe added a career-high 12 rebounds. “Having Prince back is huge,” said Nagy. “We hardly have any physicality when we didn’t have him in those two early losses and having him back has really helped.”
The victory marked Southern Illinois’ first Missouri Valley Conference win of the season. The Salukis improved to 1-3 in league play and 7-8 overall. SIU will hit the road for the first time in 2026 Sunday as they will head to Belmont to face the Bruins who are off to a hot start sitting at 13-2 after beating Bradley 88-78 in its last contest, “They’re (Belmont) physical,” said Nagy. “They have a few bigs who like to control the pace down low, but we have to play to that level. Honestly, Valpo might be on the most physical teams in the league so that will help prepare us for Sunday.”
