Salukis down Chicago State in historic win
First-year head coach Kelly Bond-White knew she had some firepower on her roster but during the first few games of the season, the Salukis haven't found their rhythm. That changed Thursday night.
The Salukis led wire-to-wire as they scored the most points in program history in their 115-57 victory over Chicago State inside the Banterra Center.
It was the first time Southern eclipsed the century mark since taking down SIU Edwardsville to open the 2019-20 campaign. Along with the record for points, the Salukis nearly broke single-game records for assists and field goals as they dished out 29 assists on 40 made buckets.
After posting 32 points in the fourth against Kent State on Sunday, the Salukis continued that trend as they were up 32-12 after the first and never looked back.
"The shots haven't been bad, they've just been early in the shot clock," Bond-White said. "Our kids have been in the gym shooting so I never want to tell a kid not to shoot but I want to let them know we're letting the defense off the hook. We can get downhill, we can get to the foul line."
Making shots, getting downhill and getting to the foul line were all things Southern did against the Cougars.
SIU shot 40-of-80 (50%) for the game and was 26-of-32 (81.3%) from the charity stripe.
With five players in double figures and three with at least five assists, Bond-White said it was good to see her players making the extra pass, even when up big late in the game.
"That's what we've been talking about all week," she said.
One of those players that benefited from those passes was Ashley Jones. Jones, fresh off an All-Tournament Team selection at Lehigh's Christmas City Classic, scored 29 points on 9-of-17 shooting as she also hit four 3-pointers. Her 29 points are the most since Abby Brockmeyer scored 34 last season against Eastern Illinois.
"Taking better shots, just playing relaxed," she said was key.
Aja Holmes also had the hot hand from beyond the arc as she finished with 19 points on five 3-pointers.
"Aja came in, she had been struggling," Bond-White said. "She knocked down some shots in Philly but she had a great rhythm today."
Promise Taylor (15 points, 7 rebounds), Seairra Hughes (13 points, 6 rebounds), Laniah Randle (10 points, 5 rebounds), Quierra Love (8 points, 8 assists) Tyranny Brown (8 points), Jaidynn Mason (6 points, 7 assists) and Zoe Belcher (7 points, 6 rebounds) all had buckets for Southern as Hughes notched a Saluki-high in points and rebounds.
On the defensive end, Southern held the Cougars to 20-of-58 (34.5%) from the field.
Ahlea Myers led Chicago State with 15 points while Josie Hill added 14 and Ana Haklicka finished with 13.
After a 1-1 finish at Lehigh, Bond-White knew they didn't finish how they wanted and she reevaluated a few things this week.
"Just trying to make it about us," she said. "We didn't do a lot with Chicago State the last couple of days, we focused on us and finetuning from the film and just making some corrections."
The Salukis led for 39:54 on Thursday, as Randle scored off of the opening tip and the Salukis never looked back.
Bond-White said it was a good win for everyone.
"You talk first-year head coaches and I've had a couple of rookie mistakes in terms of scheduling," she said. "I knew I had some veterans transferring in but I probably didn't anticipate how much time they needed to gel and they needed some confidence. Some of them were coming from bigger programs but they still hadn't played a lot so I didn't make the schedule easy on them but I told them when we get into late December, January, and February, that hard schedule is going to help us. "We definitely needed it," she said. "They needed it and mama needed it too. Just to have a game where I could enjoy our young ladies."
Southern is off until Wednesday when it takes on Tennessee State at 11 a.m. in the annual Field Trip Day game. Thousands of area elementary school children will converge on the Banterra Center to cheer on the Salukis against the Tigers.
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