Dawgs blow past SEMO with strong second half

By Thomas Donley

The SIU women’s basketball team did not win its third game last season until after the start of 2014.

Friday night, the 2014-15 Salukis won their third game before Thanksgiving break ended.

SIU won its second home game of the year at Southeast Missouri State. The Salukis led for the final 14 minutes, 36 seconds of their 78-62 victory.

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SIU used its size to take advantage of SEMO’s three-guard sets and outrebounded the Redhawks 46-33.

Despite playing most of the first half without First-Team All-Missouri Valley Conference center Dyana Pierre, who only played 3:30 before picking up two fouls, the Salukis hung with SEMO. The two teams went into the locker room tied at 37 at the half.

A layup by junior forward Azia Washington 5:24 into the second half put SIU up for good. The Salukis pulled away to win their second straight game.

Sophomore point guard Rishonda Napier finished with 21 points to lead her team. Friday was the third time this season Napier scored more than 20 points in a game.

Freshman guard Kylie Giebelhausen scored 12 points and blocked five shots for SIU.

The Salukis are 3-1 for the first time since 2005-06. SEMO fell to 1-4 on the season.

Head coach Cindy Stein said Friday night’s win was important in the context of the young season.

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“This was a good win for us,” she said. “This was a game that I feel like we had to have just from a confidence standpoint. You don’t want to beat Memphis and then back and have a home loss.”

SIU has won consecutive games for the first time in two years.

The Salukis will finish out Thanksgiving break with a game at 1:05 p.m. Sunday at SIU Arena against Mercer.

Thomas can be reached at [email protected] and on Twitter @tdonleyde

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