Southern Illinois University
8-5 (1-1)
Northern Iowa
7-7 (3-0)
UNI slips away from SIU, 79-70
01/09/2015 | 12:00:00 | Women's Basketball
By Tyler Wooten
SIUSalukis.com
CEDAR FALLS, Iowa -- Despite the best Saluki effort in Cedar Falls in years, Southern Illinois fell to a hot-shooting Northern Iowa team, 79-70, on Friday night at the McLeod Center.
It was a back-and-forth affair for much of the game between the Salukis (8-5, 1-1 MVC) and Panthers (7-7, 3-0 MVC). Southern out-shot UNI 48.3 percent to 47.4 and out-rebounded them 36-31 in a game that featured seven ties and seven lead changes. The difference in the game, though, came down to UNI's efficient percentages from the three-point line (8-of-19, 42.1 percent) and free throw line (17-of-20, 85 percent).
"You've got to be very disciplined when you play (UNI)," said SIU head coach Cindy Stein. "Unfortunately we had a couple breakdowns of that discipline and it was threes. I'd rather give them a two than a three, we talked about that as a group. Unfortunately they got a couple off on us and when they needed to hit a big shot they did. You have to give a lot of credit to them."
Both offenses were clicking early as the game was a tug-of-war until UNI rattled off a 10-0 run to go up 26-16 by the 9:33 mark. The Saluki offense never gave up, though, and was able to close the gap to four by halftime when the Panthers led 43-39. Southern's offense was helped greatly by seven of their game total 10 assists and a 51.6 percent mark from the field. However, the Salukis were only 1-of-7 from beyond the arc compared to UNI's 5-of-13 conversion rate, a trend that continued into the second half.
The Salukis showed no signs of being intimidated by UNI's precision shooting, though, opening the back half on a 6-2 run to tie the game at 45-45 on an Azia Washington jumper. The tide nearly turned to SIU's direction permanently after UNI head coach Tanya Warren was assessed a technical foul in the middle of an SIU run. Southern's eventually extended to a 55-47 lead on a 10-0 run following the technical, but with 14:30 left to play UNI's Madison Weekly (27 points, six rebounds, 4-of-7 3PT, 9-of-10 FT) hit an NBA-range three-pointer to drain SIU of its momentum and spark an 18-2 Panther run over the next 7:25. SIU was able to stymie UNI's run to the finish, but never quite able to overcome the momentum swing.
"I really felt like we could have pulled this one out, but it got tough," Stein said. "And we made some mistakes. We took some undisciplined shots, some ill-advised shots, we didn't wait for the offense to get settled and we lost a couple control of possessions. Overall though, if you look at the course of the whole game, our team played really hard, they never gave up and that's where I'm proud of them because last year we would have just fallen apart."
The Saluki offense had itself a day with three impressive double-digit scoring efforts. Junior Dyana Pierre 24 points on 11-of-14 shooting and eight rebounds after being held without a single board in the first half. Redshirt sophomore Rishonda Napier posted her 13th straight game in as many this season in double-figures with 19 points, six rebounds, two assists, two steals and one block (her first in more than a year). Junior Azia Washington recorded her fifth career double-double with 10 points and 10 boards. And redshirt junior Cartaesha Macklin also had nine points, five rebounds and two assists.
Southern's bench also had a solid day in SIU's strong effort against the Panthers. Senior Ariel Haynes put in a season-high four points in a season-high 13 minutes, and sophomore Kim Nebo hit a momentum-swinging layup at the buzzer in the first half that helped spark the Saluki offense in the second.
"I did feel like (the bench) did a really nice job coming in and playing as good as they can in the minutes they had," Stein said. "That's the type of team we've got to have."
Southern will conclude its stay in Iowa with a trip to Drake (8-6, 3-0 MVC) on Sunday afternoon.
"We're going to give it our best shot," Stein said. "(Drake) is playing extremely well right now and we know we're going to have our hands full. They're very similar to Northern Iowa, and that helps us in our preparation as well."
