Southern Illinois University
3-4, 0-0MVC
IUPUI
4-5, 1-1Summit
Women's Basketball downs IUPUI 77-63
12/08/2011 | 12:00:00 | Women's Basketball
Dec. 8, 2011
By Bill Ford
SIUSalukis.com
CARBONDALE, Ill. -- Southern Illinois guards Cartaesha Macklin and Teri Oliver combined for 49 points to lead the Saluki women's basketball team to a 77-63 win over IUPUI Thursday night at SIU Arena.
Macklin led all scorers with a career-high 27 points while Oliver added 22 to help the Salukis (3-4) end a two-game losing streak and improve upon the team's win total from a year ago.
"I told our girls before the game that I wanted them to come to the court with a mindset that we were a 5-1 basketball team because I believe that's what we should be. I believe we let a couple slip away from us," said SIU head coach Missy Tiber. "I wanted that mindset from the standpoint that I wanted us to play confident, not worried about what will happen at the end of the game, to go out there and play with confidence and stick with the game plan."
Outside an early segment in which the Jaguars scored 10-straight after SIU jumped out to a 7-0 lead, IUPUI (4-5) struggled to hang with the Salukis. Southern led by 18 at halftime and extended the lead as much as 30 in the second half before the Jaguars rallied in the closing minutes against SIU's bench players.
Tiber said her team experienced a huge turnaround in its rebounding from its past few games that helped the Salukis get out and run more.
"That game plan was obviously to rebound the ball better than we had in the last couple of games," Tiber said. "We knew that they had been getting out-rebounded by six a game and we wanted to be better than that and we out-rebounded them by 13."
SIU finished with a 49-36 rebounding advantage led by freshman center Alexus Patterson's game-high 12 boards. The Salukis efforts on the defensive glass, especially, paid dividends. Southern scored 17 points on fast breaks compared to IUPUI's six.
Macklin hit several shots in transition and drew multiple fouls thanks to Southern's ability to corral boards and get the ball up the court. She finished the night 9-for-10 from the free throw line. Additionally, Macklin added a career-best seven assists.
"She is a phenomenal player. I sit there and I'll sometimes get caught watching her," Tiber said of Macklin. "She wowed me on a couple of them and I've been coaching for 18 years, I don't get wowed that much anymore."
Oliver did most of her damage from long range, going 5-for-9 from the 3-point line.
"We decided enough was enough when we lost two games in a row that we shouldn't have," Oliver said. "We came out strong and we finished strong."
One area the Salukis saw continued struggles was in the team's ability to take care of the ball. The Salukis finished with a season-high 28 turnovers, which translated to 28 IUPUI points off turnovers.
"We ended the first half with 11 or 12 turnovers and then they just went downhill in the second half," Oliver said. "If you take away probably 10 of those that were forced, that's 10 shots that we can get more points."
Tiber said she was encouraged that her team was still able to score 77 points and really dominate at times despite the turnover numbers.
"I like where we're getting with this program to. I was very pleased with how the kids responded with what we need to do to win tonight," Tiber said.
SIU travels to Dayton, Ohio, Saturday to take on Wright State to kick off a five-game road trip. The Salukis won't play back at SIU Arena again until their Missouri Valley Conference home opener January 5 against Bradley.
Note:Sophomore center CiCi Shannon blocked three shots in the game to take over as SIU's all-time leader in career blocked shots with 105.
"For what she's done to improve defensively in a years period has been pretty impressive," Tiber said of Shannon. "This time a year ago, every other block attempt would be a foul on her part. This year she has done a much better job of timing it out and not fouling, keeping the balls in play too is a big difference. I'm happy for her."
