Southern Illinois University
2-25 (0-16MVC)
Illinois State
19-8 (11-5MVC)
Illinois State pushes past Women's Basketball 87-62
02/27/2011 | 12:00:00 | Women's Basketball
Feb. 27, 2011
By Bill Ford
SIUSalukis.com
NORMAL, Ill. — The Southern Illinois women's basketball team played toe-to-toe with Illinois State for the first 28 minutes, but fell apart in the final 12 of an 87-62 loss at Redbird Arena.
Southern (2-25, 0-16 MVC) trailed by just four points at halftime and drew within 51-48 eight minutes into the second half before the Redbirds (19-8, 11-5 MVC) exploded for a 20-2 run to put the game out of reach.
SIU head coach Missy Tiber said she was proud of her team's effort despite the loss.
"As far as a full game of playing together as a team, I thought that was the best we have looked," Tiber said.
Southern played some of its best basketball of the season in the first half. ISU scored first and the two teams traded baskets through the opening minutes of the game before the Salukis took their first lead of the day at 10-9.
SIU eventually led by as much as five points at 19-14 with 11 minutes remaining before the Redbirds rallied to even the score at 19-19 with five straight points from Katie Broadway. ISU used a 8-2 run to take its biggest lead of the half at 32-26 with 2:17 to play before eventually settling on a 34-30 halftime lead. The first half saw seven ties and six lead changes.
Southern kept the margin within six through the first five minutes of the second half before ISU went a 7-0 run to push the lead to double digits at 51-38 at the 14:02 mark. Just when it looked like the Redibrds might start to run away with it, the Salukis responded with a 10-0 run over the next two minutes to pull back within three.
Up 51-48 with just under 12 minutes to play, the Redibirds missed a pair of free throws but picked up the offensive rebound. Tiber said her team squandered an opportunity to continue its rally by failing to box out.
"I would really like to go back and see what would happen if we get that rebound," Tiber said. "They scored on that possession and we went down five and that was the turning point."
The Redbirds stole back the momentum with a 9-0 run to push their advantage back to 12 at 60-48. Southern went through a six minute stretch where their only scores were a pair of free throws as ISU ran out to a comfortable 71-50 lead with 5:39 remaining.
"We had a period in the second half where we didn't guard and it really hurt us. We had a lot of freshman mistakes defensively," Tiber said. "It's tough to guard them. They have some great players and they run their stuff well."
The Saluki offense awoke with 12 points in the final five and-a-half minutes, but the deficit was too large and the Redbirds matched every basket.
Senior forward Katrina Swingler led the Salukis with 18 points and seven rebounds while Teri Oliver had 17 points and Brooke LeMar scored 11.
"I would have liked to have Swing out there the whole time. She played well for us today," Tiber said. "Teri wasn't her best offensively today, but I thought she gave every bit of effort she could. We were switching her off constantly to guard their best guard. She had to work really hard for 40 minutes."
The Salukis will wrap up the regular season at SIU Arena with games Thursday against Wichita State and Saturday against Missouri State.
"If we can play the way we did in the first half and for periods in the second half, we're going to give ourselves an opportunity to win a game this weekend at home," Tiber said.
