Southern Illinois University
Illinois State
Women's Basketball hosts Illinois State on Friday
02/23/2017 | 12:17:00 | Women's Basketball
CARBONDALE, Ill. - The Southern Illinois women's basketball team plays its first of four remaining regular season games on Friday night when it hosts the Illinois State Redbirds with a 6 p.m. tipoff scheduled at the SIU Arena. The Missouri Valley Conference clash will be broadcast online via The Valley on ESPN3.
The game marks the 4th annual Donate Life Organ Donor Awareness game, with fans asked to join the Salukis in wearing green to honor this special day. All tickets for fans wearing green are just $2.
In Transition
- Rishonda Napier sits at 3,958 career minutes, the second-most in school history. She needs to play just 42 more minutes to join Cartaesha Macklin as the only two Salukis to have played 4,000-plus minutes.
- Ashley Hummel made her first career start against Evansville, and it marked the seventh different lineup that the Salukis have used this season.
- Kylie Giebelhausen's next field goal will be the 300th of her career, and she will become the 33rd Saluki to have reached 300 career field goals.
- Napier next steal will be her 142nd of her career, which will move her past Nikki Gilmore for ninth on SIU's all-time list.
- Napier needs three three-pointers to move into third on the MVC's all-time list.
- Southern is 7-0 this season when scoring 30-plus points in the paint.
-Â SIU is 3-0 this season when making at least half of their attempts from the field.
-Â The Salukis are 8-0 this season when scoring 40-plus second half points.
-Â Napier has made a three-pointer in 19-straight games, while the Salukis have made one as a team in 101 straight games.
Series History
The Salukis and the Redbirds meet for the 108th time in a series that dates back to the 1961-62 season. Southern trails the all-time series, 47-60, but have won three-straight over the Redbirds, and four of the last five. Last season SIU swept the season series from Illinois State for the first time since the 2000-01 season and will be looking for back-to-back sweeps of the Redbirds for the first time since the 1993-94 and 1994-95 seasons.
Current Salukis vs. the Redbirds
Rishonda Napier comes into Friday's contest averaging 15.0 points, 2.4 assists, 1.9 steals and 2.6 rebounds per game in seven career meetings against the Redbirds. Napier has scored in double figures in five of those seven games, including 20 points in SIU's 63-56 win at Illinois State on Jan. 29. Kylie Giebelhausen is averaging 9.0 points, 3.8 rebounds, 1.6 blocks and 2.6 assists per game in five career meetings, which included 18 points, four rebounds, two steals and a block in Southern's win at Illinois State on Jan. 29.
Scouting the Redbirds
Illinois State comes into Friday night's contest following a 77-44 loss against Missouri State, and have lost three of its last four games. The Redbirds last win came against Wichita State on Feb. 17, a 54-50 win behind 20 points from Katrina Beck. Illinois State has struggled this season away from Redbird Arena, as they are nursing a 10-game road losing streak and are 0-6 on the road in conference play this season. Illinois State's lone road win this season came on Nov. 14, a 59-52 victory at the University of Illinois-Chicago. The Redbirds have a pair of players, Taylor Stewart and Brechelle Beachum, averaging double figures, as Stewart is averaging 11.9 points per game while Beachum is averaging 11.8 pts/game.
Cracking the top-25
Rishonda Napier moved up to 25th on the MVC's all-time list for points, as she now has 1,670 career points. She passed Drake's Rachel Hackbarth (2008-12) for 25th, and needs 15 points to pass Illinois State's Cindy Kaufmann (1987-91) for 24th. The redshirt senior guard is one of three active players in the Missouri Valley Conference with over 1,600 career points, joining Drake's Lizzy Wendell and Evansville's Sara Dickey.
Dynamic Duo
Kylie Giebelhausen and Rishonda Napier are 1-2 in the league in three-pointers made, as Giebelhausen has made 65 while Napier sits at 62. The duo is the first pair in school history to make at least 60 three pointers in back-to-back seasons. Last season, Napier finished with the second-most made treys in school history (85), while Giebelhausen made the 10th-most in a single-season (60) to become the first Saluki twosome since Christine Presswood and Teri Olivier in 2009-10 to make 60-plus three-pointers in a season. Should Giebelhausen and Napier finish 1-2 in the Valley in three-pointers made, it will mark the third-straight season that teammates have done so. Northern Iowa's Amber Sorenson and Madison Weekly finished first and second in the league in each of the past two seasons.
