Southern Illinois University
2-13, 0-4
Creighton
9-5, 3-0
Women's Basketball falls to Creighton 68-51
01/08/2011 | 12:00:00 | Women's Basketball
Jan. 8, 2011
By Bill Ford
SIUSalukis.com
CARBONDALE, Ill. — The Southern Illinois women's basketball team couldn't slow down Creighton in the second half of a 68-51 loss Saturday afternoon at SIU Arena.
The Salukis (2-13, 0-4 MVC) kept pace with the MVC-leading Bluejays (9-5, 3-0 MVC) in the first half, trailing by just three at halftime, but Creighton awoke in the second half to run away with a 17-point win.
SIU coach Missy Tiber said her team's youth showed up in the second half while a senior-laden Bluejays squad took care of business.
"As I sat there and watched our kids play, it's just a lot of youthful mistakes, and they are going to get better," Tiber said. "You can see that we are getting better, but when you are battling three and four seniors on the other team, it's going to be difficult."
Southern jumped out to a 5-0 lead to start the game and held the lead through the first five minutes game until Creighton took its first lead at 10-7 on back-to-back 3-pointers by senior guard Kelsey Woodard.
Southern briefly pulled back ahead at 11-10, but Creighton followed with a 5-0 run and would not trail the remainder of the half. The Salukis tied the game at 15-15 with a 3-pointer by Renee Reed midway through the half, but the Bluejays responded with a 5-0 run. Ultimately, Creighton went into the half with a 28-25 lead.
I was really proud of our kids effort in the first half, other then a few turnovers," Tiber said. "I told our kids at half we should be up."
Creighton started the second half with a 11-3 run to take it's first double-digit lead at 39-28. The Salukis made a run to pull back within five points at 41-36, but that is as close as Southern would get.
Tiber said her team had too many breakdowns in the second half leading to easy baskets for the Bluejays, and the Salukis gave up too many offensive rebounds.
"On defense we got out of position to help, so we were out of position to rebound, giving them some easy offensive rebound put-backs," Tiber said. "We kept them to 30 percent shooting in the first half, but in the second half we let them shoot 50 percent and we weren't near as efficient."
Creighton pulled down 17 offensive boards and finished with a 43-30 advantage on the glass in what was Southern's lowest rebounding tally of the season.
Katrina Swingler led SIU with 12 points and six rebounds while Charnise Mitchell added 10 points. Reed and Teri Oliver both tallied nine points on three 3-pointers apiece.
The Salukis have a week break before their next game Saturday, Jan. 15 at Evansville.
"Were just going to continue to work our kids," Tiber said. "I'm going to be hard on them and continue to push them the way I know how to coach kids."
