CARBONDALE—Anthony Beane scored 21 points and freshman reserve Tyler Smithpeters hit a 3-pointer with 10 seconds left as Southern Illinois edged Illinois State 66-65 on Saturday.Smithpeters, who hit 3 of 4 treys, finished with 11 points and Desmar Jackson had 18 for the Salukis (13-18, 9-9 Missouri Valley Conference).Daishon Knight had 15 points and Bobby Hunter 13 for the Redbirds (16-14, 9-9), who did not get off a potential game-winning shot.The game was tight throughout. Illinois State had an eight-point lead in the first half and was up 36-33 at the break. Southern Illinois was up 61-54 with 5:35 left after a Smithpeters 3, but the Redbirds scored the next six.A layup by Reggie Lynch, Daishon Knight’s jumper and Nick Zeisloft’s free throw gave Illinois State a 65-63 lead with 29 seconds left. But Zeisloft missed the second free throw to set up Smithpeters’ heroics.

D. J. Balentine scored 24 points and Evansville, leading by 18 in the second half, outlasted a Loyola comeback, winning 75-72 on Saturday.Evansville led by as many as 12 points in the first half before settling for a 37-27 lead over the Ramblers at the break.Loyola didn’t score in the first 4 minutes of the second half and Evansville bumped the lead to 45-27. But Loyola, trailing by ten with 2 minutes remaining, took advantage of Evansville fouls and a timely Joe Chrisman (20 points) steal and 3-point play and whittled the deficit to 73-72 with 8.6 seconds left. Duane Gibson hit two free throws to put Evansville up by three. Loyola missed a trey at the buzzer and the Aces survived the Rambler comeback.Evansville (13-18, 6-12), with the victory, avoided sharing the Missouri Valley cellar position with first-year member Loyola (9-21, 4-14).

DES MOINES—Richard Carter, who finished with 18 points, hit a jump shot and made two free throws in the final 14 seconds to give Drake a 71-66 victory over Bradley Saturday.Bradley had a 37-26 halftime lead, but Drake started the second half with a 16-4 run to take the lead 42-41 with 14:32 remaining. The teams exchanged the lead until a Carter free throw with 3:39 left gave Drake a 64-63 advantage. Chris Caird hit a 3-point jumper for a 67-63 lead at the 2:58 mark. Walt Lemon Jr. dunked to close to 67-66 but Carter closed the door with his four points in the final seconds.Aaron Hawley led Drake (15-15, 6-12 Missouri Valley Conference) with 23 points, hitting 5 of 8 3-point attempts.Bradley (12-19, 7-11), which has now lost five of its last six games, was led by Lemon, Jr with 20 points.

DALLAS—Taj Gibson scored 20 points and grabbed 15 rebounds, Mike Dunleavy hit a go-ahead 3-pointer and they overtook the Mavericks in the fourth quarter of a 100-91 victory Friday night.

“We’re used to this,” Gibson said after the Bulls (32-26) won for the eighth time in nine games, moved a season-high six over .500 and answered a 22-point home loss to Dallas

in December. “We get knocked down and we keep coming back.”
The Mavericks led by 16 in the first half and had erased a six-point Bulls edge with a 7-0 run punctuated by Monta Ellis’ second steal and breakaway dunk of the night when Dunleavy put the Bulls back in front and started a 10-0 run with a 3-pointer for an 87-85 lead.Jimmy Butler had 19 points, seven rebounds and a big block during the decisive spurt, and Kirk Hinrich scored 17. Dunleavy finished with 16 points and eight rebounds, shooting 4 of 7 from long range.Ellis scored 20 to the lead the Mavericks, who were trying to match their season high with a fifth straight win.Dirk Nowitzki and Vince Carter had 15 apiece, but Carter scored just one point in the second half and was held to 0-of-6 shooting in the fourth quarter, when the Mavericks went 6 for 25 from the field.Gibson, who had 16 points in the first half, followed Dunleavy’s go-ahead 3 with a dunk on an assist from Joakim Noah, who then blocked a shot by Sam Dalembert on the other end right after committing his fifth foul.Butler scored inside after Ellis fell down, and after two more Dallas possessions ended in misses, Hinrich hit a pull-up jumper for a 93-85 lead.Butler blocked a layup try by Jose Calderon and made a free throw at the other end to complete the run as the Bulls outscored the Mavericks 27-15 in the fourth.

“We got nothing but good looks,” said Ellis, who was 2 of 6 in the fourth and 7 of 19 for the game. “We missed a lot of layups, a lot of shots in the middle, at the free throw line. Missed a lot of wide-open ones. Just weren’t going down for us.”

After the Bulls went up 84-78 on back-to-back 3-pointers from D.J. Augustin and Hinrich, the Mavericks went back in front with a 7-0 run started when Nowitzki hit a one-legged fadeaway over Noah after Noah had stolen the ball from him two straight times.Noah didn’t have a point or rebound in the first half but finished with 10 points and nine boards. The team’s assist leader had four more of those as the NBA’s lowest-scoring team reached 100 points for the third straight game — all wins.

“We are an offensive juggernaut,” coach Tom Thibodeau said with a smile. “I thought we battled back and showed more discipline as the game went along.”

The Bulls took their first lead on a reverse layup by Carlos Boozer with 2:48 left in the third quarter, but didn’t score the rest of the period. Shawn Marion quickly answered with a layup, and DeJuan Blair ended a 2-minute scoreless stretch with a bucket to put Dallas up 76-73 going into the fourth.The Mavericks made five of their first seven from long range and ran out to a 32-17 late in the first quarter, punctuated by a sprinting layup from Wayne Ellington when he was led perfectly on a long pass from Devin Harris.The Bulls got within six in the second quarter before Dallas pushed the lead back to 51-38 on a dunk by Ellis after the 1,000th steal of his career.The Bulls rallied again to get within two on a 13-2 run that included 3-pointers from Dunleavy, Hinrich and Butler.

NOTES—The Bulls are expected to sign Jimmer Ferdette once he clears waivers….The Bulls host the New York Knicks at Noon Sunday.