WICHITA, Kan. -- Southern Illinois coach Barry Hinson couldnt hear himself amid the roar in Koch Arena, so he kept stomping on the floor in a fruitless attempt to get his teams attention. Hed say later that the crowd was the biggest factor in the game. The Salukis hung tough for all but about 3 minutes Tuesday tonight, finally falling 78-67 to fourth-ranked Wichita State. It put an end to Southern Illinois four-game winning streak, its best in more than four years, while leaving the Shockers still unbeaten. "Gosh, that crowd," Hinson said. "I hate them -- and I love them. Its an oxymoron." Make no mistake: Hinson loves the passion of Missouri Valley Conference fans. He just wishes he could have better communicated with his players down the stretch, when the game hung in the balance. Instead, the Salukis (10-16, 6-7) starting turning it over on offence, the Shockers (26-0, 13-0) started getting easy baskets at the other end, and Hinson was left standing on the sideline with his hands on his hips, watching mirthlessly as the final seconds ticked away. Anthony Beane scored 25 points to lead the Salukis. "Theres a reason theyre 26-0. Theyre damn good," Hinson said, "but they made shots and that crowd just went nuts, and we came down and said, Hey, its close to April 15! Well just give you the ball and well get a tax deduction!" Ron Baker scored 19 points and Cleanthony Early had 18 for the Shockers, who became the first team to start 26-0 since Memphis in 2008. Five games stand in the way of Wichita State becoming the first team since Saint Josephs in 2004 to have a perfect regular season. The Hawks didnt lose that year until the Atlantic 10 tournament. "Just survive," Wichita State coach Gregg Marshall said. "That was not our best effort, obviously. They get a lot of credit for that. They had a great game plan. They packed it in and we didnt make any shots from the arc. It was a good strategy. Finally we made some in the second half and pulled away slowly, but give them credit. They played well." The Shockers trailed at halftime for the ninth time during their unbeaten run, though the 33-32 deficit could have been a whole lot worse the way they were shooting the ball. Wichita State was just 2 of 14 from 3-point range in the first half, most of them missing just about everything. In fact, the only shots the Shockers seemed to make outside of 3 feet were a series of free throws that Early made to keep them within striking distance. It didnt help that the Shockers were in foul trouble, too. Baker, Early and Fred VanVleet -- their top three scorers -- were on the bench with two fouls apiece late in the half. Once they returned after the break, the Shockers started to pick up steam. Early converted a three-point play with 15:47 to put them ahead 44-43, the seventh lead change in the game. Baker added a silky-smooth jumper, then knocked down his first 3 moments later as Wichita State took control and Koch Arena suddenly got rocking. Beane refused to let the Salukis wilt under the pressure. The sophomore guard kept slicing through Wichita States man-to-man defence for baskets near the rim, more than once drawing contact along the way. When the Shockers finally clamped down on him, he deftly found the open teammate for wide-open looks. Jalen Pendletons three-point play pulled the Salukis to 69-64 with 2 1/2 minutes left, but Baker answered with his third 3-pointer. The Shockers turned up the pressure and forced Sean OBrien into a turnover that led to a run-out by Baker, who was fouled and made both free throws. Still with a chance to make it a game, Southern Illinois promptly turned it over again, and this time the Salukis allowed VanVleet to go for an uncontested layup that made it 76-64. Wichita State merely had to coax the final seconds off the clock to remain undefeated. "Its cool, you know?" Early said. "But we take it game by game, day by day. I dont think were looking at an undefeated season because you have to beat the team thats in front of you." Joe Garagiola Jersey . You can, too, Clay Buchholz, if we ignore the sixth inning of Game 2. Doug Fister and Jake Peavy, youre up next in Game 4 and theres a lot to live up to. Jim Fregosi Angels Jersey .ca MLB Power Rankings, the third consecutive week that the As have held top spot and the third straight week that they have been one ahead of the Toronto Blue Jays. https://www.cheapangels.com/843j-dave-wi...angels.html.com) - Jenny Boucek is the new head coach of the Seattle Storm. Rod Carew Jersey . The 30-year-old Moore played in 13 games for the Saints last season, catching 37 balls for 457 yards and two touchdowns. Andrew Bailey Angels Jersey . Didnt need any help this time. Wood beat Cincinnati for the first time in his career, repeatedly pitching out of threats for seven innings, and Chicago stalled the Reds week-long surge with a 2-0 victory Monday night.SAN DIEGO -- Utah State allowed two 100-yard rushers all season long. Jordan Lynch, the all-purpose Heisman Trophy finalist from Northern Illinois, failed to make it into that exclusive club. The Aggies swarming defence made Lynch look average during a 21-14 victory over No. 24 Northern Illinois in the Poinsettia Bowl on Thursday night. Safety Brian Suite intercepted a pass and recovered a fumble by Lynch, who was bottled up for only 39 yards rushing. That kept him from becoming the first major college player to rush for 2,000 yards and pass for 2,000 yards in the same season. Utah State stymied a Huskies offence that had averaged nearly 42 points a game. "The only thing we do every week is not stop the run game, but eliminate the run game," USU coach Matt Wells said. "But obviously he is a big part of the run game, so we were able to eliminate him, make him one-dimensional and then we were able to actually find a way to run the football, which makes them one-dimensional, and the ballgame is ours." Joey DeMartino, who went to high school and junior college in San Diego, carried 23 times for 143 yards and a touchdown for Utah State (9-5). He was the offensive MVP. "The feelings unreal," DeMartino said. "I couldnt ask for a better senior game to go out on and to be in front of my hometown, my family, my friends and everyone who supported me out here." DeMartino said the Aggies wanted to bounce back from a loss to Fresno State in the Mountain West Conference championship game. "We took a hard loss there," DeMartino said. "Thats not how we play. We just wanted to come back and prove to the nation that we can compete every game and we did just that." Lynch was third in the Heisman Trophy voting and made The Associated Press All-America team as an all-purpose player. He extended his major college record for yards rushing for a quarterback in a season to 1,920. He completed 20 of 35 passes for 216 yards and was sacked twice. Lynch ran for a touchdown and passed for another for NIU (12-2), which ended the season with two straight losses. The Huskies were coming off a 20-point loss to Bowling Green in the Mid-American Conference title game that cost them a BCS bid. "We gave it the 24-hour rule," Lynch said. "The carpet got pulled out from under uus losing to Bowling Green and thinking about going to a BCS game.dddddddddddd But we got a chance to play a great opponent in Utah State. I thought we had a great three weeks of practice. We came out with a lot of energy and had fun. All the credit goes to Utah State. Lynchs pass was intercepted on the first play of the third quarter by Suite, setting up a go-ahead, 5-yard touchdown pass from Darrel Garretson to Brandon Swindall. The Aggies put it away when DeMartino scored on a 1-yard run with 4:14 to go for a 21-7 lead. It capped a 16-play, 80-yard drive that consumed 7:19. "We had to find a way to keep wearing them down and Im going to tell you what -- we imposed our will on them at the end of the game," Wells said. "On that one drive to make it 21-7, that was more of an issue that they had been out there all night because the offence couldnt do a thing," NIU coach Rod Carey said. NIU punted four times, had two turnovers, two missed field goals and relinquished possession on downs one time. "We werent able to move it like we normally do," Carey said. Lynch threw a 5-yard scoring pass to Juwan Brescacin with 1:44 left to pull NIU to 21-14. NIU tried an onside kicked that USU recovered. There were four turnovers and three missed field goals. The game drew only 23,408 to 70,000-seat Qualcomm Stadium, the lowest attendance in the bowls nine-year history. Suite also recovered Lynchs fumble in the first quarter. NIUs first five series in the second half ended with an interception, three punts and a missed field goal. "We had our chances," Lynch said. "We had our chances to make some plays and score some points. We were in the red zone three times or so and we didnt come away with points. We just didnt capitalize on it." The teams staggered through an unimpressive first half that included a missed field goal by each team, a shanked punt by NIU and a lost fumble by Lynch. Lynch scored on a 1-yard run with 8:17 left in the second quarter to cap a 15-play, 78-yard drive and give NIU a 7-6 lead. Lynch ended NIUs second possession by losing a fumble at midfield. Utah State responded with a 31-yard field goal by Nick Diaz. NIUs Mathew Sims was wide right on a 37-yard field goal attempt and DeMartino had a 58-yard run to set up Diazs 39-yard field goal. ' ' '