For basketball fans who like blowouts, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville's Vadalabene Center was the place to be on Thursday.
         Eleven different players scored for SIUE as the Cougars trounced Blackburn 80-40 in college basketball action. SIUE, which moved above the .500 mark at 5-4, scored the first 17 points of the game and bounced Blackburn, 2-6.
         Blackburn failed to score its first point until the 12:54 mark of the first half on a Corey Waters jumper. Waters led Blackburn with 13 points.
         Strong defense for SIUE forced 22 turnovers from the Beavers. The Cougars also controlled the boards 36-22.
         SIUE Coach Marty Simmons had his bench in the game early. In fact, the SIUE bench accounted for 44 of SIUE's 80 points. SIUE was led by Joel Jaye off the bench with 14 points. Justin Ward also had 10.
         Ron Jones was SIUE's lone starter in double figures with 10 points. He has now scored double figures in all nine of SIUE's games.
         The Cougars now have a layoff of 12 days for the holidays. SIUE next faces Robert Morris (Ill.) on Dec. 30 with game time set for 7:30 p.m.
                -siue cougars-