Southern Illinois University
Western Kentucky University
Salukis look to stay hot at Western Kentucky on Tuesday
11/19/2018 | 1:41:00 | Women's Basketball
Scouting the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers
• The Hilltoppers have won back-to-back Conference USA Championships and have won three of the last four C-USA Championships.
• Are coming off a 24-9 season and its fourth trip to the NCAA Tournament over the last six seasons.
• First-year head coach Greg Collins took over after six years as an assistant and associate head coach under Michelle Clark-Heard.
• WKU returns both the C-USA Freshman of the Year (Raneem Eldedawy) and the C-USA Sixth Player of the Year (Dee Givens).
• Eldedawy recorded five double-doubles during her freshman season, the most by a WKU freshman since 2004-05.
• The Hilltoppers have lost four-straight to open the 2018 season with losses to three Power 5 conference teams Louisville (102-80), Oklahoma (90-83) and Iowa (104-67) and fell to Central Michigan most recently, who is receiving votes for the Top-25.
• Western Kentucky was picked to finish fourth out of 14 in the Conference USA preseason poll.
• Tasia Brown and Ivy Brown, who combined for 40 of WKU's 75 points in its win at SIU a year ago, both graduated.
All-time series vs. the Hilltoppers
• The Hilltoppers lead the all-time series, 8-6, in a series that dates back to 1980.
• Western Kentucky has won three-straight in the series, including a 75-49 win inside SIU Arena a year ago.
• Southern's last win in the series came on Dec. 9, 1989- a 53-52 win in Carbondale.
• SIU is 1-5 all-time at Bowling Green, Ky.- with its last win at WKU coming on Dec. 13, 1986.
Last Time vs. the Hilltoppers
• The Hilltoppers used a strong third quarter to defeat the Salukis.
• WKU opened the third on a 16-1 run and connected on their first eight shots, including 4-of-4 from three-point range.
• Ivy Brown scored 16 of her 20 points in the third.
• Makenzie Silvey came off the bench to score nine points.
• SIU was undone by an inability to hit shot in the second half, as Southern shot just 31.8% (7-for-22) and was 0-of-8 from three-point range in the half.
SIU versus Conference USA
• SIU plays its second and final Conference USA opponents this season in Western Kentucky.
• The Salukis are 10-21 all-time against Conference USA foes, including a 66-53 loss to Louisiana Tech in the Sweet 16 of the 1987 NCAA Tournament.
• Southern's last win on the road over a Conference USA opponent came at Marshall on Dec. 2, 2017- a 64-59 win.
• SIU has never beat multiple Conference USA opponents in the same season.
Double-Double Machine
• Abby Brockmeyer recorded her third-straight double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds in the win over Marshall.
• She is the first player in program history to open a season with three-straight double-doubles.
• Joins Drake's Sara Rhine as the only two players in the Missouri Valley Conference to open the 2018-19 season with three-straight double-doubles.
• It was Brockmeyer's eighth career double-double and her three double-doubles this season are tied for fifth.
• Brockmeyer's 9.0 defensive rebounds per game are the most in the MVC and rank 22nd nationally.
Protecting the Rim
• The Salukis currently lead the league in blocks (15) and blocks per game (5.0/game).
• SIU has only once led the league in blocks - do so during the 1988-89 season.
• Southern has two players ranked in the top-5 of the league in the category - Abby Brockmeyer (2nd, 2.33/game) and Brittney Patrick (T-5th, 1.0/game).
• SIU's eight blocks vs. Marshall were a season-high.
