Southern Illinois University
2-15, 0-8MVC
Indiana State*
11-6, 4-4MVC
Women's Basketball Falls to Indiana State, 78-66
01/27/2005 | 12:00:00 | Women's Basketball
Jan. 27, 2005
By Jeff Honza
www.SIUSalukis.com
TERRE HAUTE, Ind. - Indiana State (11-6, 4-4) caused several turnovers, made plenty of free throws and used a big second half run to beat Southern Illinois (2-15, 0-8), 78-66, earlier tonight in Missouri Valley Conference action at the Hulman Center.
SIU, who lost by 33 or more points each of the last two years at the Hulman Center, didn't play like that tonight.
Instead, the Salukis gave the Sycamores everything they could handle.
Despite turning the ball over a season-high 29 times, including 19 in the first half, SIU stayed within striking distance of INS for much of the game's first 28 minutes.
The only thing SIU couldn't do was narrow INS' margin to anything less than three.
In the first half, Ashley Clark and Danette Jones hooked up in a shootout, as each scored a minimum of seven consecutive points at one time in the game's opening 20 minutes.
Clark pitched in eight straight points in a span of 3:34, while Jones tallied seven in a row in 4:29. After Jones' stretch, the Salukis only trailed, 14-11, with 12:26 remaining.
Behind Clark's hot hand, the Sycamores built a 26-19 advantage with 6:22 left.
Then, it was Jones' turn.
One of the league's best three-point shooters, Jones did what she does best and drained back-to-back threes to pull the Salukis to within three again. Her second long ball chopped the Sycamore lead to 28-25 at the 5:15 mark.
Thanks to four more points from Clark, INS responded with a 9-4 run in the final minutes of the half to take a 37-29 lead at the break.
Clark hit a near-perfect 7-of-8 from the field to go along with a pair of free throws en route to 16 first half points.
Meanwhile, Jones connected on 5-of-10 field goals, including three from behind the arc.
After scoring five straight points to open the second half, SIU trailed, 37-34, but once again couldn't get any closer.
INS, later aided by a couple of conventional three-point plays, managed to build a 53-45 lead, before Amy Hayden knocked down a trey to narrow the gap to 53-48 at the 12:12 mark.
Then, after Jones hit a three-pointer to bring SIU to within four (55-51) with 9:58 left, INS used a 12-2 run to shake the pesky Salukis for good.
After a Kristin Weddle layup capped the run and extended INS' lead to 67-53 (7:22), the Sycamores led by as many as 15 (78-63) before going on to win, 78-66.
Clark finished with 23 points on 8-of-10 from the field and 7-of-8 from the free throw line. Clark's efforts underneath helped the Sycamores to a 44-22 advantage in points inside the paint.
Melanie Boeglin (18) and Stephanie Lisch (13) also had double-digit scoring performances.
For SIU, Jones, like Clark, also had 23 points. She was 8-of-17 from the field, including 5-of-12 from three-point range. Elyse Morris followed with a career-high 19 points on 7-of-12 from the field, 2-of-5 from downtown and 3-of-4 from the free throw line.
The Salukis shot 49 percent (25-of-51) from the field on the night, including a 50 percent (13-of-26) showing in the second half.
At the free throw line, INS held a lopsided 24 makes in 34 attempts to SIU's quiet 7-of-8.
SIU returns to action Saturday when it plays at Illinois State. Tip off is set for 3:05 p.m.
