Southern Illinois University
1-5
Saint Louis
4-4
Saint Louis powers past Women's Basketball 66-39
12/02/2010 | 12:00:00 | Women's Basketball
Dec. 2, 2010
By Bill Ford
SIUSalukis.com
CARBONDALE, Ill. -- The Southern Illinois women's basketball team's early-season shooting woes returned and the Salukis couldn't find any answers against a physical Saint Louis squad in a 66-39 loss Thursday night at SIU Arena.
The Salukis (1-5) gave up a 50-30 rebounding advantage to the Billikens (4-4) and finished with their lowest scoring output since the 2008-09 season.
"This was obviously an extremely difficult loss," said SIU head coach Missy Tiber. "We didn't play hard and we had no intensity and that's no one's fault but my own. This is the first time all year I feel that we did not play hard."
SIU came out sluggish against the Billikens, managing just 13 points in the first half on 5-of-22 shooting. Saluki Senior Katrina Swingler said her team didn't show enough intensity, even before the game started.
"They were ready to play and we weren't from the beginning," Swingler said. "Tonight was like a bad dream. We didn't play together. I feel like we still have a lot to work on -- especially our team chemistry."
Saint Louis didn't have such issues, as the Billikens roared to a 34-13 halftime lead behind strong post play from Kathryn Hestler, who scored 12 of her game-high 19 in the opening period.
"They were shooting 45 percent for most of the first half. That's why I know we weren't where we needed to be," Tiber said. "We have been really intense on the defensive end, getting stops and rebounding the ball, and we didn't do that tonight. They come out and shot 45 percent and killed us on the boards"
SIU saw some improvements to start the second half as the Salukis cut their turnovers down to six in the second period compared with 15 in the first, and doubled their first-half offensive output to 26 points after halftime.
Despite the effort, SLU didn't see any dropoff from their first half intensity, and the Billikens cruised to their second win over SIU in as many seasons.
Charnise Mitchell was the only Saluki to score in double figures with 12 points, while Teri Oliver and Sidney Goins both added six points. Eboni Crayton led SIU with eight rebounds while Olivia Patterson contributed four steals.
"It is disappointing because after the Austin Peay game, we continued to improve," Tiber said. "We had good skill workouts with our players, we watched film, we had great intensity in both of our practices, were practicing really hard, and then, boom -- tonight happened. We got blindsided by it."
The Salukis will hit the road to play No. 23/23 Vanderbilt on Tuesday, Dec. 7. Southern will play six of its next seven games on the road.
