Women's Basketball opens MVC Tournament Thursday against Evansville

The Southern Illinois University women's basketball team opens the 2020 MVC Tournament on Thursday when it takes on the Evansville Aces at 7 p.m. Southern, the seventh-seed, swept Evansville in the regular season, which included a 99-60 drubbing on Feb. 23. The contest will be streamed on ESPN+ and can be heard locally on Magic 95.1 FM.

Conference Tournament History

• The Salukis are 18-25 all-time in the conference tournament and last won it all in 1990, defeating Illinois State, 71-54 behind Tournament MVP Amy Rakers.
• Southern's win over Indiana State in the 2018 MVC Tournament quarterfinals was the last time that SIU advanced to the MVC Tournament semifinals.
• SIU's last semifinal win came during the 1992-93 season when the Salukis defeated Creighton, 71-69 in overtime to advance to the championship game.

History as the 7th seed

• This marks the second time that the Salukis will be the seventh seed at the MVC Tournament.
• Southern was the seventh seed during the 1999-00 season.
• The Salukis are 0-1 as the seventh seed. SIU lost to the No. 2-seeded Evansville Purple Aces, 76-56 on March 9, 2000.
• The Valley moved to a 10-team tournament format prior to the 2005-06 season.
• Since 2006, the seventh-seed holds an 11-3 record against the 10th-seed. SIU is one of three 10-seeds to win a game at the conference tournament since 2006. The 10th-seeded Salukis knocked off the seventh-seeded Purple Aces, 83-75 in overtime in 2013.

All-time vs. the Purple Aces

• The Salukis and the Purple Aces will meet for the 63rd time Thursday in a series that dates back to 1984.
• Southern has won six-straight, and nine of the last 11, against Evansville and leads the all-time series, 34-28.
• Evansville's last win in the series was on Feb. 17, 2017- a 74-61 win inside SIU Arena.
• Thursday's meeting will mark the fourth time that the Salukis and Aces have met at the conference tournament. Evansville has won two of three of those meetings.
• Southern won the most recent meeting- an 83-75 overtime win on March 14, 2013.

Previous three meetings between UE and SIU at the MVC Tournament
Date   Winner   Score
3/9/00   Evansville (2 seed)   W, 76-56
3/12/09  Evansville (9 seed)   W, 58-53
3/14/13  SIU (10 seed)   W, 83-75 (OT)

Three Salukis named to MVC Scholar-Athlete Teams

• Makenzie Silvey was named to the MVC Scholar-Athlete First Team while Abby Brockmeyer and Nicole Martin both earned MVC Scholar-Athlete Honorable Mention recognition.
• SIU's three scholar-athlete honorees were tied with Northern Iowa for the most of any Valley school.
• It marks the fourth time in the last five years that Southern has placed three on MVC Scholar-Athlete teams.
• Southern has had at least one MVC Scholar-Athlete honoree in each of Cindy Stein's seven seasons as head coach and have had 15 earn MVC Scholar-Athlete honors during her tenure.

Martin, Silvey, Patrick named to All-MVC Teams

• Nicole Martin and Makenzie Silvey were selected to the All-MVC honorable mention team while Brittney Patrick earned her first career All-Defensive Team honor.
• Martin is the ninth player in program history to earn three all-conference honors. She joins Bridgett Bonds, Cartaesha Macklin, Dyana Pierre, Kasia McClendon, Kelly Firth, Nikki Gilmore, Petra Jackson, Rishonda Napier and Anita Scott as the only Salukis to accomplish the feat.
• Silvey earned her second-straight All-MVC honor after a stellar junior campaign in which she finished seventh in the league in scoring at 14.8 points per game.
• Patrick earned her first career All-Defensive team honor after she finished in the top-five of the conference in steals (1.8/game). Patrick notched at least one steal in 23 of SIU's 29 games, which included 13 games with multiple takeaways.

Sustained success

• With SIU's win over Evansville on Feb. 23, the Salukis clinched a winning record for the sixth-straight season under seventh-year head coach Cindy Stein.
• It's the longest streak of winning seasons for the program since 1997, when Southern capped off an impressive run of 14-straight winning seasons under then head coach Cindy Scott.

Body of Work

• Southern is currently one of six Missouri Valley Conference teams with a top-110 RPI.
• SIU's strength of schedule rank of 93 is its highest since at least 2002 and its RPI of 110 is the highest its been since 2007, when the Salukis went to the WNIT.
• SIU's four top-100 wins this season are its most since at least 2002.

15-plus assists

• Southern dished out 19 assists against Valparaiso on March 7.
• The Salukis have finished with 15 or more assists in 17 games this season.
• SIU ranks second in the Valley, and 37th nationally, with a 15.7 assists per game average.

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