Salukis ready for battle with Lehigh at Christmas City Classic

The Southern Illinois Women's Basketball team hit the road Friday for the Christmas City Classic, hosted by Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa, for two games in the Keystone State.

The Salukis will take on the host Mountain Hawks at 11 a.m. (CST) Saturday at Stabler Arena. The second semifinal features Kent State and Quinnipiac with the winner of that matchup, taking on the winner of Southern/Lehigh at 1:30 p.m. (CST) on Sunday.

SIU is coming off of an 89-76 loss to Memphis on Tuesday where three Dawgs finished in double figures.

Ashley Jones led Southern with 15 points while Laniah Randle (13 points) and Jaidynn Mason (10 points) also had solid offensive games for the Salukis.

Mason scored eight of her 10 points to start the fourth as she helped bring the Salukis square with the Tigers at 65-65 with 7:00 left in the game but Memphis hit timely shots to hand SIU its fourth loss of the season.

Jones is currently the only Saluki averaging double digits this season as she sits at 11.3 ppg. Tyranny Brown (9.8 ppg) and Promise Taylor (9.3 ppg) are also hovering near 10 ppg.

On the year, Taylor is 15-of-28 from the field, including 10-of-15 in her last two games. Against Memphis, Taylor had six points, five rebounds and five blocks.

While Southern is still looking for its first win, its opponents all have a record of at least .500 with the four squads having a combined record of 12-7 this season, including Memphis, IUPUI and Northwestern with at least three wins on the year.

Lehigh comes into the game with a record of 2-3 with victories over Stonehill (60-43) and Bloomsburg (97-54). The Mountain Hawks have losses to South Dakota State, Minnesota and Drexel.

Senior Frannie Hottinger and junior Mackenzie Kramer are each averaging 19.6 ppg this season for Lehigh while Hottinger is also at 10.4 rebounds a game to average a double-double on the year.

Four of Lehigh's five starts from its last game are shooting at least 40% from the field with Kramer (58.3%) and sophomore Kaylee Van Eps (57.9%) leading the way.

Addie Micir was named the Lehigh women's basketball coach on April 27, making her the eighth head coach in the program's history but Micir is no stranger to the Mountain Hawks program.

Micir was named the associate head coach for Lehigh in 2019 after stops as an assistant at Princeton, her alma mater, and Dartmouth.

Saturday's matchup will be the first-ever between Southern and Lehigh as it has also been at least two decades since the Salukis played a member of the Patriot League.

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