Southern Illinois Hosts Purdue Fort Wayne on Wednesday

CARBONDALE, Ill. - The Southern Illinois University women's basketball team (1-1) will play its third-straight home game to start the season on Wednesday at 6 p.m. against Purdue Fort Wayne.

HOW TO WATCH/LISTEN

SIU's game against Purdue Fort Wayne will be broadcasted on ESPN+ on Wednesday with Dominic Hoscher (play-by-play) and Mike Trude (analyst) on the call.
Wednesday night's game will also be on NewsRadio WJPF 107.9 FM with Larry Larson doing the broadcasting duties.

QUICK HITS

The Salukis are 1-1 through their opening two games of the season. In its last game, SIU fell to Cornell, 80-77, on Saturday.
Southern scored at least 20 points in both the third and fourth quarters, out-scoring Cornell, 20-15, in the final 10 minutes, before ultimately falling short. SIU shot 39.1% from the field and 20.8% from beyond the arc in the loss.
SIU has scored over 75 points in both of its two games to begin the campaign. In 2022-23, the Salukis scored at least 75 points in 15 of their 31 total games. Southern was 11-4 when reaching the 75-point plateau one season ago.
Only Drake (85.7 points-per-game) and Illinois State (83.5) are averaging more points than Southern Illinois (81.0) so far in the Valley.
The Salukis are also third in the MVC in field-goal percentage (0.436).
SIU leads the conference in turnover margin at 9.50, which is tied for 29th in the country. The Salukis have forced 53 turnovers and have had 34.
Only Indiana State (15.50) is averaging more steals-per-game than Southern (14.50) in the MVC. SIU's average is tied for 26th in the NCAA.

LEADING THE SALUKIS

Shemera Williams is off to a hot start for Southern Illinois, averaging a team-high 17.5 points-per-game, which ranks seventh in the Valley. Williams is tied for 10th in the conference in field-goal percentage (.500) and is tied for 14th in three-point percentage (.444).
Williams has scored at least 16 points in both games to start the year. The veteran accomplished this feat twice in all of 2022-23.
Jaidynn Mason is the team's second-leading scorer with 15.5 points-per-game, which is 13th in the Valley. Mason's 3.5 steals-per-game are tied for fourth in the conference.
Quierra Love has gotten it done on both ends of the court to begin the year. Love is averaging 10.5 points on 7-of-12 shooting from the field and 4-of-6 shooting from deep. Love's .667 three-point percentage is tied for fourth in the MVC and is also tied for 24th in the country.
In two games played, Laniah Randle is both third in scoring (12.0) and is averaging a team-high 9.5 rebounds-per-game. Randle is tied for the conference-lead in rebounding.
Along with her average of 10.0 points-per-game, Seairra Hughes is also shooting .615 from the field, which is tied for fourth in the MVC.

LOOKING AT PURDUE FORT WAYNE

The Mastodons bring a record of 1-1 on the season into Carbondale ahead of Wednesday's game.
Purdue Fort Wayne is coming off of a 124-41 win on Saturday over Great Lakes Christian. The 124 points are the most in a single game in program history.
The Mastodons also tallied 27 assists, the fourth-most in Purdue Fort Wayne history, and had 56 rebounds, the seventh-most all-time.
Renna Schwieterman scored a team-high 28 points, while six players total scored in double-figures.
Purdue Fort Wayne lost to Michigan in its first game of the season. 80-61, on Nov. 6.
In 2022-23, the Mastodons finished the year with a record of 14-19, the team's ninth-straight under .500 finish.
Maria Marchesano is in her third season as the team's head coach.

SERIES HISTORY

This will be the third meeting all-time between the Salukis and Mastodons. Purdue Fort Wayne leads the series 2-0.
The last time the two teams met was on Nov. 18, 2013, a game the Mastodons won 79-62 in Fort Wayne, Ind.
This is the second meeting to take place in Carbondale and first since Nov. 29, 2012.

FOLLOW THE SALUKIS
Keep up with all the latest news and information on the Salukis by following the team on Twitter at @SIU_WBasketball, on Instagram at @SIU_WBasketball, and on Facebook at Facebook.com/SalukiAthletics. Fans can also download the "Salukis" Mobile App on the App Store or Google Play Store.

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Players Mentioned

Seairra Hughes

Quierra Love

Jaidynn Mason

Laniah Randle

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