Southern Illinois University
0-1,0-0MVC
Middle Tennessee
-11,00 CUSA
Women's Basketball falls in opener to Middle Tennessee
11/12/2022 | 10:28:00 | Women's Basketball
The Southern Illinois Women's Basketball dropped its season-opener on Saturday to Middle Tennessee.
The Salukis led 2-0 to start the game but it was all Blue Raiders as they headed back to Murfreesboro with an 90-38 victory, avenging their first loss of the season to Mercer.
"I think what you saw there is a potential NCAA (Tournament) team," SIU Head Coach Kelly Bond-White said after the game. "They got their ears pinned back a little bit with their first game at Mercer (76-75 loss) and they came back. Their coach got their attention and they executed."
Middle Tennessee jumped out to a 26-9 lead after the first and held Southern to single digits in three of four quarters as the Salukis outscored the Blue Raiders 16-15 in the final frame but the deficit was too big to overcome.
The Blue Raiders shot 32-of-56 (57.1%) and 11-of-25 (44%) from beyond the arc with six players knocking down 3-pointers.
Multiple players made buckets for MTSU, with six players in double figures. Kseniya Malashka led her squad with 14 points as Savannah Wheeler (13 points, 6 assists), Jalynn Gregory (13 points), Courtney Whitson (12 points, 7 rebounds), Akex Whittington (11 points) and Anastasiia Boldyreva (10 points, 5 rebounds) all had double digits in the victory.
For Southern, it shot just 12-of-50 (24%) from the field and were only 3-of-13 (23.1%) from the line. SIU also finished with 25 turnovers but did have 10 assists on its 12 made buckets.
Sophomore Laniah Randle continued what she did in the exhibition game as she had 11 points and seven rebounds to lead the Salukis in both categories.
Aside from Randle, Promise Taylor and Sydney Prochaska were the only SIU players to have multiple buckets as each finished with two. Prochaska added a free throw to finish with five points. Tamara Nard went 4-of-6 from the line and added a bucket to score six points in the loss. Ashley Jones (5 points), Aja Holmes (3 points), Jaidynn Mason (2 points), Tyranny Brown (2 points) all got in the scoring column for Southern.
Bond-White said it wasn't what she hoped from in the opener.
"Looking in the mirror and accepting responsibility," she said. "The buck stops here. I was brought here to put a team on the floor that would compete and I didn't get that tonight."
The Salukis will look to bounce back Wednesday when they host IUPUI at 6 p.m. Wednesday inside the Banterra Center.
