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GAME NOTES: A couple of teams showing identical Missouri Valley Conference records meet in Des Moines, Iowa tonight, as the Drake Bulldogs host the Southern Illinois Salukis at the Drake Knapp Center.

Drake has hit a rough patch in the schedule that has them on a four-game slide at the moment, following their 76-66 loss at Indiana State on Saturday afternoon. The defeat pushed the team to 6-9 in conference play, which is where SIU currently stands heading into the week as well.

In the case of the Salukis, they actually snapped a two-game losing streak on Saturday with an 80-64 romp over the Evansville Purple Aces at home. However, the win was just the second in the last six games for SIU.

Southern Illinois has won all but three of the last 22 meetings with the Bulldogs, giving the Salukis a commanding 51-22 advantage in the all-time series. However, Drake won the most recent encounter, a 70-65 decision in Carbondale last month.

John Freeman came off the bench and hit all four of his field goal attempts and went a perfect 7-of-7 at the free-throw line to finish with a team-high 15 points in the Salukis' 16-point win over Evansville on Saturday. Kevin Dillard added 14 points and Carlton Fay tallied 10 as the team went from shooting 47.8 percent from the field in the first half to a sizzling 64.0 percent after the break to coast to the win. After 25 games, Dillard leads the team in scoring with 13.0 ppg, with many of those points being attributed to his 80 percent effort at the free-throw line. But more than just a reliable scorer, Dillard is also first on the squad with 133 assists, which means he has an assist/turnover ratio that is slightly better than 2-to-1 at the moment. Throw in Tony Freeman and Fay with 12.1 and 10.8 ppg, respectively, and the Salukis have a solid core of scorers upon which to lean.

Shooting only 33.3 percent from the field in the first half against Indiana State, the Bulldogs took themselves out of contention as they fell by 10 points on the road on Saturday. Nevertheless, Josh Young did post a game-high 21 points, hand out six assists and clear five rebounds in the effort, while Ben Simons tallied 15 points on 5-of-8 shooting beyond the arc off the bench. Coming up a rebound shy of a double-double was Adam Templeton with his 12 points on 4-of-7 shooting out on the perimeter. Young's 14.2 ppg this season paces the unit, while Ryan Wedel accounts for 11.3 ppg as the only other double-digit scorer on the roster at the moment. Templeton (9.9 ppg) handles the action on the inside with his team-best 7.4 rpg, yet he is also the top three-point shooter after 27 games at a staggering 47.1 percent.

As long as Templeton can play the dual role as the primary performer both inside and out for the Bulldogs, they should be in a good shape to snap their slide tonight at home.