Southern Illinois University
1-1
Wright State
4-0
Wright State pulls away from SIU, 70-50
11/22/2014 | 12:00:00 | Women's Basketball
By Tyler Wooten
SIUSalukis.com
DAYTON, Ohio -- Wright State and Southern Illinois were evenly matched early on, but the difference in the game came from the charity stripe as the Raiders pulled away from the Salukis in the second half en route to a 70-50 victory over SIU on Saturday afternoon.
The Salukis (1-1, 0-0 MVC) never got into foul trouble individually, but fouls became big trouble for SIU down the stretch. In the end, SIU put the undefeated Raiders (4-0, 0-0 Horizon League) on the line 31 times compared to Southern's four. The Salukis did not attract a shooting foul until junior Azia Washington got hacked with 11:28 to play in the second half.
Much of Southern's trouble on the free throw line came from a lack of inside presence, as preseason All-MVC center Dyana Pierre was held to only four total points -- including three shot attempts in the second half. Pierre was still a force to be reckoned with on the block, where she pulled down 13 rebounds -- which, now puts her in a tie for 14th all-time at SIU with 588 career rebounds.
"(The free throw shooting) is a really tough discrepancy," said SIU head coach Cindy Stein. "We had some turnovers to (Pierre), she wasn't going after the ball with two hands -- we just didn't do very well. They were giving us outside shots until we would actually make one, so they were going to continue to pack it in on Dyana."
While last week against UT Martin the tempo was blisteringly fast, today's game crawled at a much slower pace. That said, Southern was still in the game throughout the first half, trailing by only four at the break at 33-29. The Salukis came out of the break on a 4-0 run to knot the game at 33-33, but their 26.7 percent field goal percentage in the second half allowed the Raiders to mount a 37-17 run to the finish.
"We didn't play very well, obviously, and we definitely didn't shoot very well," Stein said. "When you look at a stat sheet you want to make sure at all times that the scoring and other things are spread out -- especially with as many kids as we played today -- but we couldn't get anything going."
Sharing the wealth was key in SIU's win over the Skyhawks last week, but today only Rishonda Napier (20 points, 9-of-19 FG) and Azia Washington (13 points, 5-of-9 FG) were in double figures out of 13 Salukis that saw the floor. Napier now has two consecutive 20-point games to start this season, the second time she has done so in back-to-back games in her Saluki career. Her freshman season she scored 23 and 20 at home against Wichita State and Missouri State in January 2013.
The Saluki defense also had its hands full with Raider guard Tay'ler Mingo, who put up 24 points on SIU -- eight alone from the charity stripe. Mingo was effective off the dribble, and was able to wreak havoc on Southern's foul-weary defense.
"We're not going to see a ton of kids like (Mingo) -- she is very talented," Stein said. "I think we still did a good job on certain things that she does; she averages eight assists and today she had two."
Up next for SIU is a four-game homestand -- including three games in five days over Thanksgiving break. On Wednesday (Nov. 26), SIU will play host to Memphis at 6:05 p.m. for the first time since 1997. Then, on Friday (Nov. 28), the Salukis will take on regional foe Southeast Missouri at 6:05 p.m. Southern will wrap up the weekend with a visit from Mercer on Sunday (Nov. 30) at 1:05 p.m.
"Memphis is going to be a tough game, they're a really physical ball club and really athletic as well," Stein said. "They're going to be a little bit similar to Wright State, so we've got to make sure that we take care of business."
