Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Women's Basketball Sets to Take on Indiana State
01/16/2002 | 12:00:00 | Women's Basketball
Jan. 16, 2002
Carbondale, Ill. - Southern Illinois (4-10, 0-5) returns home to host a brief two-game stand beginning with Indiana State (5-9, 1-2) tomorrow night at 7:05 p.m. Indiana State ranks 15th in the nation in three-point shooting.
Both teams head into Thursday's matchup on losing streaks as Indiana State has come up empty in its last four tries, while SIU has sputtered to seven straight losses of its own.
Coming off recent losses to both Southwest Missouri State (86-48) and Wichita State (85-53), Southern Illinois enters tomorrow's contest as the only Valley team to not have a league win this season.
Junior Molly McDowell (13.5 ppg) and senior Holly Teague (13.1 ppg) continue to lead the struggling Saluki offense which has shot a mere 26 percent (49-of-183) from the field in its last three games. They are followed by senior Geshla Woodard who saw her points per game average drop from 10.5 to 9.9 a week ago.
Led by junior guard Kourtney Mennen's impressive 21.1 points per game, Indiana State poses a volatile three-point attack that has combined for 104 bombs which equals out to be 7.4 per game. Mennen, who also surpassed the 1,000th career-point mark against Creighton (1/14), is 49-of-108 alone from three-point land where the Sycamores additionally rank 15th nationally.
April Kirby (11.1 ppg) and Kristin Stewart (10.9 ppg) then round out Indiana State's triple threat scoring in double figures.
Southern Illinois leads the overall series with Indiana State 37-18 which began in 1969. Dating back to 1999, however, it has been the Sycamores who have held the advantage winning their previous five of six games over the Salukis, including the last three straight. The last time SIU defeated Indiana State was on Dec. 29, 1999 (64-62) in Terre Haute, Ind.
