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The Loyola Chicago Ramblers basketball team will host the Southern Illinois Salukis in Missouri Valley Conference play on Thursday.
The game (8 p.m. ET start time) will be televised locally on Fox Sports Midwest, Fox Sports Kansas City, Fox Sports Indiana and NBC Sports Chicago, but if you don’t have cable or any of those channels, anyone in the US can watch the game live on ESPN+:
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Once signed up for ESPN+, you can then watch Southern Illinois vs Loyola Chicago live on your computer via ESPN.com, or on your phone (Android and iPhone compatible), tablet, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Chromecast, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, or other streaming device via the ESPN app.
Southern Illinois vs Loyola Chicago Preview
The Ramblers have won eight of their last 10 after starting the season 3-4. On Saturday, they pounded the Evansville Purple Aces 78-44 at home to improve to 3-1 in conference play.
Loyola Chicago shot 31-of-44 (70.5%) from the field and 4-of-14 (40%) from 3-point range.
“We weren’t settling,” Ramblers head coach Porter Moser said, according to the Loyola Phoenix. “We were making the extra pass. We were driving a lot harder. We were getting out in transition. I thought we got some easy ones in transition. We’re always talking about having our defense create our offense and I thought we did that today.”
Loyola Chicago guard Marquise Kennedy came off the bench to shoot 8-of-9 from the field and lead all participants with 20 points, a career high.
The Ramblers led 30-22 late in the first half before assembling a 13-point run. The stretch included Kennedy’s second dunk of the game.
“It really was the energy from the crowd [and] our teammates,” the freshman said, per the Loyola Phoenix. “I just felt it and I know everyone else felt it. That really pumps you up. It’s when you can do crazy plays like that.”
The Salukis had won two in a row and four of five before they fell to the Bradley Braves 67-48 on the road on Saturday, slipping to 8-9 on the season and 2-2 in MVC play.
Southern Illinois led by three at the midway break, then got outscored 41-19 in the second half.
“We got off to a slow start in the second half and for whatever reason we came out flat,” Salukis head coach Bryan Mullins said, according to The Daily Egyptian. “I’ve got to do a better job at halftime to make sure the guys understand how important it is to start second halves off the right way. That kind of carried over throughout the rest of the half.”
Forward Marcus Domask led the Salukis with 11 points (on 4-of-12 shooting) and tied for a team high with 10 rebounds.
Southern Illinois committed 15 turnovers, including 9 after the break. The Braves had just 5 turnovers in the second half — one was a shot-clock violation as they held the ball with seconds remaining — after coughing it up 11 times in the first.
“We had 10 turnovers in the second half I think, and we just can’t have those,” Mullins said, per The Daily Egyptian. “On the road, with as young and inexperienced as we are, we have to value the ball better and get better shots.”
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