Southern Illinois University
0-1
Saint Louis
1-0
Women's Basketball falls in season opener to Saint Louis
11/13/2009 | 12:00:00 | Women's Basketball
Nov. 13, 2009
By Shalae Patrick
www.SIUSalukis.com
ST. LOUIS, Mo. - It was a tale of two halves for the Southern Illinois women's basketball team Friday night against Saint Louis in Chaifetz Arena. The Salukis fell to the Billikens, 71-45, in their 2009-10 season-opener and head coach Missy Tiber's Division I debut.
The Billikens jumped out to a 4-0 lead to start the game before a Teri Oliver layup put the Salukis on the board at the 16:51 mark in the first half. SLU then went on an 18-point run helped along by nine of SIU's 17 first-half turnovers, to put them up 22-4 with seven minutes left in the period.
SLU took a 27-point lead into the locker room at the break, while the Salukis finished the half with 11 points, the lowest one-half total in program history.
"It's going to be a challenging year and we knew that," Tiber said. "Tonight, I'm just frustrated because I know what we are capable of and we're a better basketball team than what we showed in the first half. And unfortunately when you play that bad in the first half, you are not going to be able to recover."
The Salukis made adjustments and turned it around in the second half to win the period, 34 points to 33, recording just one turnover in the half, but couldn't overcome the slow first half.
"We showed good effort and we took really good care of the ball in the second half," Tiber added. "We told them to relax. We were patient and we took good shots."
Katrina Swingler, Eboni Crayton and Oliver led the Salukis with 10 points each, while Stephany Neptune added eight points, a game-high 12 boards, four steals, and five assists.
Latoya Hambrick came off the bench for the Salukis for a career-best seven rebounds and three points, all free throws.
The Billikens were led by Amanda Kemezys with 21 points and 11 rebounds, while Katie Paganelli added 11 points and four rebounds. Janeasha Gearlds recorded a game-high eight assists for SLU.
Southern opens the regular season at home Wednesday, Nov. 18, when the team hosts Southeastern Conference foe Vanderbilt for a 7 p.m. tip-off at SIU Arena.
"I think we are better than how we played tonight," Tiber added. "I'm going with the players that are going to play the hardest for me. They may not be the best, but they are going to get the most minutes. If I have to wear some of them out because they had to play 35 minutes a night then that's what we are going to do. I want the players out there that want to win and want to play together."
