Southern Illinois University
1-5,0-0MVC
Kent State University
4-2,0-0MAC
Salukis fall to Kent State in Christmas City Classic final
11/27/2022 | 4:28:00 | Women's Basketball
BETHLEHEM, PA. — The Southern Illinois Women's Basketball team had its best fourth quarter of the season Sunday but the deficit was too great after a difficult first half as they fell to Kent State in the Christmas City Classic tournament final in Bethlehem, Pa.
The Golden Flashes did just what their name entailed during the first half as they took the title, 72-66.
The Salukis made it to the final after an 87-81 victory over host Lehigh. The win was the first of the season for SIU and the first of the Kelly Bond-White era but Southern couldn't turn it into two wins during the weekend.
Southern had a solid shooting stroke Saturday in the win but settled for jumpers in the first three quarters against Kent State before it exploded for 32 in the final frame on 12-of-24 from the field and 4-of-7 from beyond the arc.
After being down by as many as 20 during the game, SIU could only cut it to six in the final frame, the eventual deficit when the buzzer sounded.
Kent State won the opening tip, the first Southern hasn't obtained this season, and immediately hit a 3-pointer to take the lead as Kent State's Lindsey Thall scored the first nine points for the Golden Flashes.
SIU Head Coach Kelly Bond-White said the start was difficult for the Salukis.
"They had a shooting five (Thall), which created a mismatch for Promise," she said. "Hit those three quick ones and it got us in a hole. It shook our confidence a little bit."
Despite shooting 5-of-20 in the opening quarter, Southern only trailed 12-11 after one as five players scored in the first.
Both teams settled down in the second but it was still Kent State that held a 32-25 lead at the break.
Bond-White said Thall was a focus at half.
"She was the only one going for them," she said. "The second half we just gave up some straight line drives."
After a tough third shooting the ball, Tyranny Brown buried a 3/4 court heave at the buzzer to make the deficit 13 going into the final frame.
Brown, Promise Taylor, Ashley Jones and Aja Holmes each had multiple buckets in the fourth for Southern.
"Just got to get our kids playing under control," Bond-White said was the key moving forward. "If we can score 32 in the fourth, if they would just just our stuff instead of panicking … They're just going so fast and throwing up shots and giving tempo to the other team instead of playing our game. They couldn't stop us in the half court and tempo was really important. I thought we got in a rush and took some ill-advised shots early on."
The Salukis were led by Brown's 15 points as she went 5-of-9 from the field and buried three triples in the loss.
Taylor added 14 points and seven rebounds while Jones finished with double-digits for her fourth-straight game. Jones finished with 12 points.
Taylor and Jones were each named to the All-Christmas City Class Tournament Team.
Kent State was led by tournament MVP Lindsey Thall and her 20 points to go with seven rebounds. Casey Santoro finished with 15 points for the Golden Flashes with all of her points coming in the second half.
Clare Kelly (12 points) and Dionna Gray (10 points) also finished in double figures for Kent State while Hannah Young had a near double-double with eight points and 10 rebounds.
Southern Illinois is back in action at 6 p.m. Thursday when it hosts Chicago State at the Banterra Center.
