Friday, January 4
Carbondale, IL
6 p.m.
Southern Illinois University
8-4, 1-0MVC
67
vs
47
University of Evansville
2-10, 0-1MVC
1
2
3
4
F
Evansville
15
15
13
4
47
Southern Illinois
25
16
16
10
67
Photo by: Tom Weber
Salukis cruise past Evansville for Fifth-Straight Win
01/04/2019 | 9:44:00 | Women's Basketball
Southern improved to 6-0 on its home floor this season with the 67-47 win over Evansville Friday night.
CARBONDALE, Ill. – The Southern Illinois University women's basketball team put three players in double-figures, shooting 64 percent from the field in the first half, while dominating the boards to overpower Evansville, 67-47, Friday evening inside SIU Arena.
With the wire-to-wire win Friday night, Southern has now won five-straight games for the first time since the 2015-16 season and improves to 8-4 on the season. The Salukis also moved to 6-0 on their home floor this season and it marks SIU's first six game home-winning streak to open a season since the 1993-94 season.
"Its good to win this one," said sixth-year head coach Cindy Stein. "I think any kind of win after a break like we have had is significant. It feels good to kind of get a game out of the way. It wasn't always pretty out there, but I felt like we started well, got a little lackadaisical, then got the lead back and we were able to isolate some things."
Southern was poised to take control of the contest from the opening tip, as it opened the game on a 10-2 run capped off by an Abby Brockmeyer put-back layup.
The Salukis took their largest lead of the first half, 12, with :21 seconds left in the period on a free throw by Brockmeyer. Southern took an 11-point lead (41-30) into the locker room at halftime.
There was no let down in the second half for Southern, as the Salukis burst out to a 51-36 lead on a layup by Nicole Martin with 5:38 remaining in the third quarter. Evansville scored back-to-back baskets to cut the lead to 11, but a three-ball by Makenzie Silvey pushed the lead to 14 at the end of three and the Purple Aces never got any closer.
Martin led the way for the Salukis as she was nearly perfect from the field. The Preseason All-MVC selection converted on her first 11 attempts from the field and didn't miss until her final shot with 2:45 remaining in the contest. Martin notched her fourth career double-double, as she finished with 23 points, tied a career-best with 12 rebounds to go along with two steals and two assists.
Silvey finished with 17 points, six boards, three assists and a steal while Brockmeyer added 11 points, six boards, three assists and two blocks.
"Nicole Martin played fabulous," Stein said. "She did a great job inside. Im probably more proud of her in the rebounding category. I liked our inside-out attack. Makenzie was doing a really good job on the perimeter and we found her quite often. Just real proud of them to get that first conference win and we have to keep battling to get better each game."
Martin was a big reason that Southern out-rebounded Evansville, 43-to-24. SIU's +19 rebounding margin was a season-high and included 14 offensive boards.
The Salukis also capitalized on a noticeable size-advantage and scored 50 of their 67 points (74%) in the paint.
"I felt like we had a size advantage so we always wanted to attack the block area," Stein said. "I felt like we were really aggressive there and that was the hole we saw in the zone so we tried to take advantage of it."
The Salukis also improved to 6-0 in conference openers under Coach Stein with the win. SIU's six-straight wins in conference openers is a school record since Southern began conference play in 1982. SIU's six conference opening wins under Stein are more wins in conference openers than the Salukis had in the 15 seasons (1998-2013) prior to her arrival.
"It's nice to start off with a win because its a really tough conference so to get the first win under our belt is a good feeling," Silvey said. "But we know we have to be ready to go on Sunday against Indiana State because we know they are a really scrappy team so we will have to be ready to go and play with a lot of energy."
The Salukis return to action Sunday when it hosts Indiana State. Tip-off against the Sycamores is slated for 2 p.m.
With the wire-to-wire win Friday night, Southern has now won five-straight games for the first time since the 2015-16 season and improves to 8-4 on the season. The Salukis also moved to 6-0 on their home floor this season and it marks SIU's first six game home-winning streak to open a season since the 1993-94 season.
"Its good to win this one," said sixth-year head coach Cindy Stein. "I think any kind of win after a break like we have had is significant. It feels good to kind of get a game out of the way. It wasn't always pretty out there, but I felt like we started well, got a little lackadaisical, then got the lead back and we were able to isolate some things."
Southern was poised to take control of the contest from the opening tip, as it opened the game on a 10-2 run capped off by an Abby Brockmeyer put-back layup.
The Salukis took their largest lead of the first half, 12, with :21 seconds left in the period on a free throw by Brockmeyer. Southern took an 11-point lead (41-30) into the locker room at halftime.
There was no let down in the second half for Southern, as the Salukis burst out to a 51-36 lead on a layup by Nicole Martin with 5:38 remaining in the third quarter. Evansville scored back-to-back baskets to cut the lead to 11, but a three-ball by Makenzie Silvey pushed the lead to 14 at the end of three and the Purple Aces never got any closer.
Martin led the way for the Salukis as she was nearly perfect from the field. The Preseason All-MVC selection converted on her first 11 attempts from the field and didn't miss until her final shot with 2:45 remaining in the contest. Martin notched her fourth career double-double, as she finished with 23 points, tied a career-best with 12 rebounds to go along with two steals and two assists.
Silvey finished with 17 points, six boards, three assists and a steal while Brockmeyer added 11 points, six boards, three assists and two blocks.
"Nicole Martin played fabulous," Stein said. "She did a great job inside. Im probably more proud of her in the rebounding category. I liked our inside-out attack. Makenzie was doing a really good job on the perimeter and we found her quite often. Just real proud of them to get that first conference win and we have to keep battling to get better each game."
Martin was a big reason that Southern out-rebounded Evansville, 43-to-24. SIU's +19 rebounding margin was a season-high and included 14 offensive boards.
The Salukis also capitalized on a noticeable size-advantage and scored 50 of their 67 points (74%) in the paint.
"I felt like we had a size advantage so we always wanted to attack the block area," Stein said. "I felt like we were really aggressive there and that was the hole we saw in the zone so we tried to take advantage of it."
The Salukis also improved to 6-0 in conference openers under Coach Stein with the win. SIU's six-straight wins in conference openers is a school record since Southern began conference play in 1982. SIU's six conference opening wins under Stein are more wins in conference openers than the Salukis had in the 15 seasons (1998-2013) prior to her arrival.
"It's nice to start off with a win because its a really tough conference so to get the first win under our belt is a good feeling," Silvey said. "But we know we have to be ready to go on Sunday against Indiana State because we know they are a really scrappy team so we will have to be ready to go and play with a lot of energy."
The Salukis return to action Sunday when it hosts Indiana State. Tip-off against the Sycamores is slated for 2 p.m.
Team Stats
EVA
SIU
FG%
.370
.483
3FG%
.364
.182
FT%
.600
.455
RB
24
43
TO
15
14
STL
10
10
Game Leaders
Pts
23
FGM
11
3FGM
0
FTM
1
Pts
17
FGM
7
3FGM
3
FTM
0
Pts
11
FGM
5
3FGM
0
FTM
1
Pts
7
FGM
3
3FGM
1
FTM
0
Players Mentioned
F
/ Women's BasketballF
/ Women's BasketballG
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