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GAME NOTES: The Southern Illinois Salukis try to halt a brief two-game slide tonight as they tangle with the Missouri State Bears in Missouri Valley Conference action in Carbondale.

The last five games have been rather tight for the Salukis, with all of them being decided by five points or less. On Sunday night, the team dropped a 55-54 decision to Wichita State at home, pushing it to just 4-7 in conference.

As for the Bears, they've also hit a couple of rough patches with four losses in the last six contests. Saturday saw Missouri State score an identical result as SIU as the Bears bowed to Northern Iowa at home.

The Salukis have won nine straight meetings in the series when playing at home and have taken six of the last seven clashes overall. As a result, SIU owns a 37-26 lead over the Bears heading into this meeting.

Missouri State led by four points with less than two minutes remaining in regulation over the weekend, but the Bears failed to keep up the pace and eventually fell by a point to UNI in Springfield. Adam Leonard, who made good on 4-of-9 shots behind the three-point line, but was just 6-of-15 from the field overall, finished with 17 points as the lone double-digit scorer for the home team. The Bears converted only 29.4 percent from three-point range and 5- of-7 at the free-throw line. Leonard, the most productive three-point threat for the Bears with his 57 conversions over 22 games, is second on the unit in scoring overall with 12.0 ppg, trailing only Kyle Weems who is posting 14.0 ppg and is also responsible for a team-high 5.8 rpg at the moment as well. Over the course of 11 conference games Jermaine Mallett has been a significant piece of the offense with his 13.1 ppg.

The Salukis trailed by five with less than three minutes to play against Wichita State over the weekend, but the home team was only able to whittle the deficit down to a single point as Kevin Dillard converted a layup in the final minute before missing a jumper in the last seconds. Dillard finished the night with 10 points and seven of the team's eight assists, while Gene Teague and Tony Freeman both accounted for 12 points in the setback as well. A starter in all but one of the team's 21 games this season, Dillard is at the top of the scoring list for the group with his 13.8 ppg, having made far more free-throws (81-of-104) than any of his teammates have yet to attempt in 2009-10. Dillard is also first in the assists department with 118 and has numbered 32 steals to pace the group in that area as well. Freeman and Carlton Fay are responsible for 12.6 and 11.0 ppg, respectively, on the season, but the team as a whole has dropped to just 65.5 ppg in conference play.

Both teams are coming off disappointing outcomes from the weekend, but since the Salukis are no longer a dominating force in their own building there's a good chance Missouri State could put all the pieces together to come up with the win tonight.