Instead, Southern Illinois turned it around, stealing one from the Rainbow Warriors under the bright lights of national television.

Thanks in large part to 21 steals, the No. 20-ranked Salukis escaped with a 66-62 victory over Hawai'i in the feature game of ESPN's Bracket Buster Saturday.

"There's no moral victory here," Hawai'i head coach Riley Wallace said. "We're a good basketball team. We're supposed to win games like this."

A raucous sellout crowd of 9,628 at the SIU Arena thought it was a big enough victory by the Salukis to storm the court after the final horn sounded.

"We weren't scared of (Southern Illinois); we weren't intimidated by the crowd," UH senior co-captain Phil Martin said. "But we still can't be satisfied. We all feel like we should have won this game."

The 'Bows controlled most of the first half, and led by as many as seven early in the second half. Hawai'i trailed by only one with less than two minutes remaining, and the Salukis needed two clutch plays down the stretch to clinch the victory.

"They're just as good as us, if not better," SIU head coach Matt Painter said of Hawai'i. "If Hawai'i is not a (NCAA) Tournament team, then that's going to be a heck of a tournament because they're good enough."

The Salukis are also pretty good, and may have sealed their spot in the NCAA Tournament with the win last night. SIU, which has already clinched the regular-season championship of the Missouri Valley Conference, improved to 22-2 with its 14th consecutive victory.

Hawai'i dropped to 17-7 after losing back-to-back games for the first time this season. The 'Bows are still in a tie for second place in the Western Athletic Conference at 9-4.

Martin scored a game-high 20 points on 6 of 11 shooting to lead the 'Bows.

Jeff Blackett added 16 points and eight rebounds in place of injured starting center Haim Shimonovich. Michael Kuebler had 14 points, but shot just 4 of 11 from the field.

The 'Bows shot a respectable 47.9 percent from the field (23 of 48) and 84.2 percent on free throws (16 of 19), but they did not make a 3-pointer for the first time in 34 games. Hawai'i was 0 of 8 from 3-point range, including 0 of 3 by Kuebler.

"They weren't giving us any good looks on the outside," Wallace said of SIU's defense. "Their guards are good perimeter defenders, and Kuebler's been struggling a little bit lately."

But according to Painter, SIU's primary defensive focus was not on Kuebler. It was on UH's point of attack.

"We wanted to keep rotating guys on their point guard," Painter said. "We wanted to keep wearing them down, especially Logan Lee. I thought Logan still did a good job, but we knew that without him, their offense doesn't run."

Lee said: "It was like they had 40 guys coming at us all night. They kept sending in fresh legs, and all those guys were playing tough, in-your-face defense."

Ultimately, every key Hawai'i player contributed to the season-high 24 turnovers, and every key SIU player got at least one steal. The 21 steals set a record for a Hawai'i opponent, breaking the previous mark of 18 set by Providence in 1977.

"They didn't take us out of our offense; we got what we wanted out of our offense," Wallace said. "It was just that they didn't allow us to start our offense a lot of times by getting those steals."

When Hawai'i was able to break the SIU pressure, Martin and Blackett could often be found near the basket for easy layups or dunks.

Martin (11), Kuebler (11) and Blackett (8) combined to score 30 in the first half, lifting Hawai'i to a 38-35 advantage at intermission.

The 'Bows increased it to as much as 45-38 early in the second half before turning the lead over by turning the ball over.

The Salukis finally caught the 'Bows at 45 with 14:32 remaining, and then took their first lead of the second half at 51-49 with 11:35 left.

SIU led by as many as eight before Hawai'i was able to cut it to 60-59 with 2:11 remaining.

The Salukis responded with two spectacular plays to seal the victory: LaMar Owen scored on a put-back dunk to put SIU ahead, 62-59, then Darren Brooks drained a 3-pointer as the 35-second shot clock expired to give the Salukis a 65-60 lead with 28 seconds remaining.

The 'Bows are scheduled to return to WAC action with a road game at Texas-El Paso tomorrow. UTEP is in first place at 10-4.

Shimonovich, UH's 6-foot-10 senior co-captain, stayed in Hawai'i because of a sprained right knee. He is expected to join the team on the road today, and could be available for tomorrow's game.