Southern Illinois University
8-3
William Woods University (Mo.)
8-4
Salukis cruise to exhibition win over Owls
12/29/2019 | 4:28:00 | Women's Basketball
All 14 Salukis scored in the win.
CARBONDALE, Ill. – The Southern Illinois University women's basketball team cruised to a 90-44 exhibition victory over William Woods University Sunday afternoon in a tune-up before conference play begins on Jan. 3.
All 14 Salukis scored at least one point and everyone saw significant time on the floor in a game that was never in question. Southern, which was playing in its first game in nine days, led from start to finish in the win.
"We wanted to play an exhibition game at this time of the season because we wanted to get back into the swing of game mode and we wanted a lot of people to be able to play," seventh-year head coach Cindy Stein said. "We were able to play some players out of position like we have done in practice, but we have yet to do that in a game. We got a lot of people in and played a lot of different lineups. It wasn't as clean of a game as I would like, but I liked the fact we got a lot of experience, got into game mode and can now shift our focus to conference play."
Three Salukis scored in double figures, led by the hot shooting of Payton McCallister. McCallister finished 7-for-11 from the field, including 5-of-7 from three-point range, for a game-high 21 points. Lauren Hartman added 13 points, seven boards, two steals and two blocks while Nicole Martin chipped in 13 points in 11 minutes.
"Two people that stood out to me today were Lauren Hartman and Payton McCallister," Stein said. "They both came up with hustle plays and knocked down open shots. I felt like Lauren was always around the loose balls while Payton played some point guard today and handled it well."
SIU never trailed in the contest, as it scored the game's first four points on back-to-back layups by Martin. The Salukis opened up an 18-7 lead at the end of the first quarter and led 50-17 at the half.
The Salukis shot 49.3% (36-of-73) from the field and consistently moved the ball around to find the open shooter. Southern tallied assists on 28 of its 36 field goals and 11 different Salukis recorded at least one assist, including six from Makenzie Silvey. Southern forced 30 turnovers and finished with 18 steals. Awa Keita and Brittney Patrick both had four steals in the victory.
SIU returns to action Friday, Jan. 3 when it travels to Valparaiso for its conference opener. Tip-off is set for 6 p.m.
