Salukis to host Maryville on Friday for exhibition opener
10/24/2013 | 12:00:00 | Women's Basketball
Oct. 24, 2013
Roster | Twitter | Saluki All-Access
By Tyler Wooten
SIUSalukis.com
CARBONDALE, Ill. -- Southern Illinois women's basketball will host Maryville on Friday at the SIU Arena, the first of two home exhibition games for the Salukis.
The matchup against Division II Maryville will be the first game action for first-year SIU head coach Cindy Stein, who inherited an SIU women's team that went 5-26 last season. Stein comes to Carbondale with 16 seasons of head coaching experience, including 12 seasons at Missouri where she posted 185 wins and booked three trips to the NCAA Tournament (2001, '04, '06).
Southern returns leading scorer Cartaesha Macklin, leading rebounder Dyana Pierre and leading three-point shooter Jordyn Courier from the 2012-13 squad. SIU also returns five players who started 15 or more games last season, four of whom started 20 or more.
"I think in the exhibition games we're looking more for just the unity of how we need to play and everyone working together," Stein said. "You got to have five people as a unit defensively, you got to have five people as a unit offensively. Just getting those kinks worked out, that's really what we're looking for."
"I think everyone's excited," Stein said. "It's about time (the season)'s here. It'll be really neat to see how we come out and how we approach it Friday. We hope we have a great crowd and get things rolling."
Tipoff is scheduled for 6:05 p.m. at the SIU Arena.
GAME INFORMATION:
Date: Friday, Oct. 25
Time: 6:05 p.m.
Location: Carbondale, Ill.
Site: SIU Arena
Radio: None
Web Stream: Saluki All-Access
Play-by-play by Bryce Williams
Color commentary by Logan Lee
TEAM INFORMATION:
Southern Illinois:
2012-13 Record: 5-26 (1-17 MVC)
Head Coach: Cindy Stein (First season)
Career Record: 282-206 (16 seasons)
Returnees: 10
Maryville
2012-13 Record: 19-10 (13-5 GLVC) Division II
Head Coach: Chris Ellis (209-119, 13th season)
Career Record: 209-119 (13 seasons)
