Women’s Basketball falls to Murray State, 83-69 | https://siusalukis.com/
Women’s Basketball falls to Murray State, 83-69 | https://siusalukis.com/
Women’s Basketball falls to Murray State, 83-69
Murray State won its first Missouri Valley Conference road game, handing the Southern Illinois women's basketball team an 83-69 loss on Sunday night at the Banterra Center.
The Salukis (9-16, 6-10) trailed by as many as 18 points before making a furious comeback to cut the deficit to 60-56 at the end of the third quarter.
Southern's offense came alive in the third quarter behind senior guard Ashley Jones, who scored 15 of her team-high 26 points. Back-to-back 3-pointers by Jones in the frantic, final minute of the quarter cut the margin to four. SIU out-scored Murray, 34-21, in the third.
"Understand, that's what Saluki women's basketball is growing into," said SIU head coach Kelly Bond-White. "That will be the standard for how this program is built. They played together, they played with energy. They exhausted themselves, and that's what I asked them to do."
The Racers (13-12, 6-10) never let Southern get any closer, though. Katelyn Young was a force in the paint for Murray, scoring 29 points. Murray State avenged an 81-73 home loss to Southern on Jan. 20.
"We executed, quite possibly, our best game of the season at their place, and I knew they would come back and have a little more juice for us," Bond-White said.
SIU had 19 assists off its 28 field goals on the night, and shot 72 percent from the field in the third quarter — two pieces to build off of.
"We had one out of four today, in terms of (winning) the quarters, so now you try to get two, you try to get three — you keep building," Bond-White said.
Southern has four games left in the regular season, including its final two home games next week versus Indiana State and Evansville. Both SIU and Murray State are battling for seeding at the conference tournament and are currently in a three-way tie with Evansville for seventh place.
"We're playing for seeding," Bond-White said. "It's about the next step in the journey of where we're heading, and trying not to take too many steps backwards. They're going to come out and fight."
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