Southern Illinois University
0-3,0-0MVC
Northwestern
2-2,0-0Big Ten
Women's Basketball falls to Northwestern on the road
11/19/2022 | 6:46:00 | Women's Basketball
The Southern Illinois Women's Basketball team dropped its third-straight game to start the season 0-3 for the first time since 2013-14 when the Salukis finished 5-25.
SIU overcame a slow start but couldn't cut the deficit to single digits the rest of the way as the Salukis fell 84-69 to Big Ten foe, Northwestern.
The Wildcats took a 9-0 lead to start the game after hitting four of their first six shots - it would be the only lead they would need.
"Execute," SIU Head Coach Kelly Bond-White said they had to do early. "We've got to want to guide somebody. Everybody wants to run down to this end and jack the ball but we've got to learn to be in a stance, we've got to learn to stay in a gameplan."
Northwestern led 25-13 after one and 52-33 after the break but it was the third where the Salukis would try to make their move after the Wildcats were firing on all cylinders offensively in the first half.
NW was 20-of-33 (60.6%) from the field in the first half, including 4-of-8 from beyond the arc.
Caileigh Walsh scored 20 of her game-high 25 points in the opening half.
Southern cut the deficit to 12 multiple times in the third frame but couldn't find a bucket to make it a 10-point game.
The Salukis outscored the Wildcats 18-14 in the final frame but the deficit was too much to overcome from SIU.
Promise Taylor had her SIU-career high with 20 points (7-of-11 from the field, 6-of-7 from the line) to go with six rebounds.
"We're going to eliminate some of these long bombs that we're constantly launching and we're going to learn to go inside," Bond-White said. "I thought Promise was a little bit more physical."
Ashley Jones scored 14 off of the bench for the Dawgs, including two 3-pointers. Aja Holmes also hit two treys for SIU as they hit just four in the game on 16 attempts.
At the line, the Salukis went 19-of-23, their highest percentage of the season.
Seairra Hughes (6 points, 4 rebounds), Jaidynn Mason (7 points, 4 rebounds), Aja Holmes (6 points, 2 rebounds) and Laniah Randle (6 points, 9 rebounds) all had multiple buckets for SIU while Tyranny Brown added eight points in her second start of the season.
Southern now looks to its matchup with Memphis on Tuesday at the Banterra Center. The Tigers are 3-1 on the year with victories over Howard, Miami (OH) and SIUE. The Tigers' lone loss came in their opener against Howard in a 77-69 decision.
