Southern Illinois University
2-4
Austin Peay
1-5
Women's Basketball overthrows Governors, 54-41
11/29/2006 | 12:00:00 | Women's Basketball
Nov. 29, 2006
By Shalae Schulte
www.siusalukis.com
CARBONDALE, Ill. - The Southern Illinois women's basketball team broke a 6-6 tie on an Erin Pauk free throw with 12:10 left in the first half and never looked back, handing Austin Peay their fifth loss of the season, 54-41, Wednesday night in SIU Arena.
Despite shooting a frigid 30 percent (5-of-21) from the field in the first half, the Dawgs (2-4) came back in the second half to shoot 52 percent (11-of-28) to lead the Governors (1-5) by as many as 14 with less than five minutes left in the game.
"That was probably one of the ugliest games I've ever been a part of, coaching or playing," Saluki head coach Dana Eikenberg said. "However, I'm glad to be on the higher-scoring side of that and I thought that we did a good job of being very gutsy, just kind of digging deep and, right now, working with what we have to get a much-needed win."
The Salukis held Austin Peay scoreless over the first four minutes of the game; the Lady Govs first splash on the board came following the first media timeout.
SIU's largest lead of first half was nine on a Kaci Bailey 3-pointer with 45 seconds left in the period to carry Southern into the break with a 20-11 advantage.
Bailey produced a career-best eight points, playing a career-high 30 minutes at the point.
APSU was first to score in second half at 19:30 on a layup in the paint, then again at the 18 minute mark put the game at 20-15 to start the second half. Four points was as close as Austin Peay would come as Southern answered with back-to-back jumpers from Jasmine Gibson and Carlai Moore.
Moore produced a game-high 14 points, while Gibson chipped in four points and two steals off the bench.
"I thought we did a better job in the second half of taking them out of their sets," Eikenberg said. "In that half I thought we did a good job of battling, our ball pressure got a little bit tighter."
Another Bailey three with just over four minutes to play put the Salukis up 14, the largest lead of the game.
SIU scored 22 points off 22 APSU turnovers, the most forced by the Salukis this season.
All 10 Salukis that saw action in the game scored. The five Saluki players off the bench, outscored the APSU bench 25 to 19. The Salukis are 2-1 on the season when the bench is productive.
Southern Illinois takes the road for four-straight games, the first stop Ogden, Utah, where the Salukis will face Weber State. Southern won their season opener against the Wildcats a year ago, 55-48.
