Women's Basketball Nearly Upsets Tennessee, Falls 59-49

Wednesday, November 10

Knoxville, TN

7 p.m. ET

Southern Illinois University

0-1,0-0MVC

University of Tennessee

1-0,0-0SEC

Team	1	2	3	4	F
Southern Ill.	11	19	12	7	49
Tennessee	12	15	11	21	59

11/11/2021 | 7:00:00 | Women's Basketball

Box Score Photo Gallery Photo Gallery 2

By: Sam Bennett, SIUSalukis.com

Knoxville, Tenn. - Despite a valiant effort and physical play throughout, the SIU women's basketball team's upset bid of No. 15-ranked University of Tennessee fell short Wednesday, as the Salukis took the loss 59-49 in Thompson-Boling Arena. Though Southern led 30-27 at the half, the Lady Vols pulled away in the fourth quarter, outscoring the Salukis 17-2 over the final five minutes of the game.

"I think we caught Tennessee off-kilter a little bit," said head coach Cindy Stein. "Obviously, as the losing coach, it's disappointing. But this was a great opportunity for our players and I thought we were real gritty."

Southern held the lead for over 22 minutes over the course of the game. The Salukis were led in scoring by sophomore Quierra Love with 13 points, including three 3-pointers.

"Q's just getting better and better," said Stein. "You could tell right from the get-go she was ready to go. She hit that open three and that was what we needed her to do."

Love turned the ball over only once in over 33 minutes on the floor. Senior Gabby Walker was second in scoring for SIU with 10 points. From the outset, Southern was intent on playing a stifling defensive game, as well as controlling the pace of play against a Tennessee squad that had scored over 100 points in its preseason exhibition.

"I feel like we have a good ball-handling team," said Stein. "We talk about time management a lot. We knew that Tennessee averaged a lot of points, so coming in we felt like that was critical for us to even have a chance at the end."

Southern held the Lady Vols to just 2-of-15 shooting from beyond the arc, including 0-of-9 in the first half. However, Tennessee responded in kind by playing tough defense on Makenzie Silvey and Abby Brockmeyer, the Salukis' two 1,000-point scorers. Silvey was held to five points, while Brockmeyer was held to four.

"People are going to key on them all year, so they better get used to it," said Stein. "We just told them, 'this is going to make you better.'"

The Salukis are back in action with a road tilt against the Kansas City Roos at 12 p.m. on Sunday. SIU's home opener is Wednesday. November 24 at 12 p.m. against IUPUI.