Southern Illinois University
1-7
IUPUI
3-6
Women's Basketball falls 65-48 at IUPUI
12/10/2010 | 12:00:00 | Women's Basketball
Dec. 10, 2010
By Bill Ford
SIUSalukis.com
INDIANAPOLIS — The Southern Illinois women's basketball team turned the ball over 31 times and couldn't find a way to slow down IUPUI in a 65-48 loss to the Jaguars Friday night at The Jungle.
Save a few spurts, the Salukis (1-7) never found an offensive rhythm throughout the night. The Jaguars' defense was a big reason for that as IUPUI (3-6) collected 20 steals for the night.
"It's just frustrating. I can't get a handle on it. Today it was a little bit of everyone with the turnovers," SIU head coach Missy Tiber said. "This is the most athletic team we have played all year. They pressured us into doing things we didn't want to do and they wouldn't let us get open."
SIU had some open looks in the first few minutes of the game, but struggled to get shots to fall. The Salukis managed just six points through the first eight minutes, but only trailed just 10-6 through the second media timeout.
Southern's offensive woes didn't improve over the ensuing nine minutes as the Jaguars pushed their lead to as much as 15 points (26-11) at the 6:15 mark.
The Salukis eventually made an offensive push in the final three minutes of the half with a 9-0 run to pull within 29-25, but that was as close as the margin would get for the rest of the night. IUPUI hit a couple of quick layups to end the half, starting what would be an 13-2 run through the first six minutes of the second half.
Despite not scoring a field goal until the 13:29 mark of the second half, the Salukis found themselves back within striking distance midway through the half behind redshirt freshman Renee Reed. Playing her first significant minutes of the season, Reed hit a 3-pointer and converted an old fashioned 3-point play on consecutive possessions to help SIU pull within 42-36 with 10:51 to play.
"I don't know how we were that close with 31 turnovers," Tiber said of the second-half run. "They shot the ball 16 more times than us. There is no answer for that."
Similar to it's first half run, though, the Salukis quickly went cold as IUPUI went on a 20-5 run over the next seven minutes to take their biggest lead at 62-41 before closing out the game for the 17-point win.
"It can't be for just little tiny stretches. It has to be for considerable amounts of time that we get better efforts out of the kids," Tiber said.
Teri Oliver led SIU with 14 points while Charnise Mitchell scored 13 points and pulled down seven rebounds.
The Salukis are back at SIU arena Tuesday, Dec. 14 to take on Wright State, scheduled for a 7:05 p.m. tipoff.
