MURFREESBORO, NC - Despite holding two-separate first-half leads and getting a team-high 20 points from junior Ignacio Rodriguez, Salem International University dropped an 98-65 decision on the road against Chowan University in NCAA DIvision II men's basketball action. Joe Goodwin scored a game-high 21 points in the win for the Hawks.

SIU heads to Cedarville, Ohio on Thursday night (Jan. 19) before returning home to host Nyack on Saturday afternoon (Jan. 21) at 2 p.m. inside T. Edward Davis Gymnasium.

Rodriguez would give the Tigers an early 6-2 lead after draining back-to-back three's. Chowan would respond with a run to take its first lead of the contest before junior Saquan Epps gave the Tigers a 14-13 lead with his layup at the 14:43 mark.

A 15-0 run by the Hawks with 6:53 remaining in the half would stretch their lead to 40-19. Epps would end the run 33 seconds later with a layup in the paint, cutting the deficit to 40-21.

Freshman Josh Carpenter connected from downtown for SIU with 1:12 left in the half to trim the Chowan lead to 53-31 before the Hawks ended the half on a 4-0 run to up their lead to 57-31 heading into the break.

The second-half of action would see the momentum stay with the home-team as the Hawks took their largest lead (38 points) with 10:32 left in the contest. Rodriguez tallied 11 of his 20 points in the second-half for SIU, going 4-of-8 from the floor and 3-of-7 from downtown. Sophomore Drew Pitzer would be the second-leading scorer for the Tigers in the half as he went 2-of-3 from the floor and 3-of-4 from the free-throw line.

Rodriguez finished the contest 6-of-11 from the floor and 5-of-10 from downtown, while Carpenter went 4-of-5 from three-point range to finish with 13 points. Senior Victor Blakey recorded a team-high three helpers while connecting on all-six of his free throw attempts.

Goodwin paced the Hawks with his 10-of-12 effort from the floor and eight rebounds, while teammate Jeremy Smith recorded 17 points and eight rebounds. Smith went 9-of-12 from the charity stripe for Chowan. Kevin Kuteyi hit a team-high three trey's and finished with 15 points for the Hawks.