Southern Illinois University
Maryville
Salukis Win Exhibition Opener, 66-60
10/30/2015 | 12:00:00 | Women's Basketball
By: Will Becque
SIUSalukis.com
CARBONDALE, Ill. - Sophomore guard Kylie Giebelhausen led three scorers in double-figures to help the Southern Illinois women's basketball team to a 66-60 win over Maryville College (Mo.) in the Salukis' exhibition opener of the 2015-16 season on Friday night inside the SIU Arena.
Giebelhausen scored 16 points, grabbed 13 rebounds and blocked four shots. Redshirt senior Cartaesha Macklin finished with 15 points and 10 rebounds, while redshirt junior Rishonda Napier tallied 10 points and eight assists for SIU, who never trailed in the game.
The Saints' Alex Hillyer poured in a game-high 22 points to lead all scorers. Ellen Foster chipped in 11 points, while Ali Ringering totaled 10.
"The reason why we played Maryville is because they present a lot of problems," said head coach Cindy Stein. "They're very well coached. They run every kind of screen. They're going to trap. They're going to always do something defensively to force the action."
The game marked the first for SIU utilizing the new rule changes implemented by the NCAA prior to the 2015-16 women's basketball season, which includes 4-10 minute quarters instead of 2-20 minute halves and less team timeouts.
"It was a little different (playing four quarters), but its still 20 minutes a half," said Napier. "It's the same thing."
Macklin scored four of her 15 on layups in the early going, staking SIU to a 10-2 lead at the 6:40 mark of the first quarter.
Maryville kept it close, however, and trailed by just three, 15-12, after a layup by Ringering with :12 to go in the quarter.
A 9-0 run, capped off by a Macklin 3-pointer, helped the Saluki lead grow to 12 points at 24-12 with 7:16 remaining in the second quarter. After back-to-back Saint baskets, Giebelhausen connected on a three of her own to make it 27-16 with 4:43 left.
Maryville countered with a run of its own, cutting the lead down to four (31-27) with under a minute to go in the half, before Giebelhausen's second 3-pointer gave SIU a 34-27 lead at the break.
Napier and Giebelhausen provided nearly all of the Salukis' offense during the third stanza, as they scored 10 of the team's 12 third quarter points to put SIU ahead 46-40 after three quarters of play.
The Saints got to within three on a layup with 3:16 left to play, but that was as close as Maryville would get.
The Salukis shot 39.1% from the field compared to 33.3% by the Saints. SIU forced 14 turnovers and outrebounded Maryville, 55-41.
SIU was playing without the services of two-time All-MVC first-team center Dyana Pierre and fellow senior Azia Washington.
"If we have Pierre and Washington we have a very physical starting five," said Stein. "Now, we've got a different element to us where we don't play that physical inside. It presents some challenges to us offensively. We've got to figure that out, that's why this is a great game for us. We'll get a lot better because of this game."
SIU has its second and final exhibition on Saturday (Nov. 7) at 2 p.m. against Kentucky Wesleyan at the SIU Arena.
