SIU began its first away game strong, but quickly fell short Monday against Indiana University- Purdue University Fort Wayne.

Throughout their first few games this season, the Salukis began to show that defense has become their biggest struggle. The women ended their night in disappointment, leaving IPFW with a 79-62 loss.

This marks SIU’s third loss of the season so far, also dropping new head coach Cindy Stein’s SIU coaching record to 0-3.

The Salukis scored four straight points to begin the game. Sophomore center Dyana Pierre scored her first point in the first few seconds of the game.

Pierre lead SIU in points, racking up 17, but fell one point behind her 18-point career high. Although Pierre captured quick points for SIU, she also racked up quick fouls that led her to sit on the bench, playing only four minutes in the first half.

SIU committed four fouls in the first five minutes of play; two of them were charged to Pierre. Nearly 8 minutes into the game, the Salukis had already marked their seventh team foul.

Within the previous home games, SIU has struggled defensively as they continue to commit late turnovers, miss crucial free throws, and toss away possessions.

The Salukis were not the only team to struggle, as the IPFW Mastodons gave away 23 turnovers, but made up for it by scoring 21 points off of the bench.

Last season, senior IPFW guard Amanda Hyde scored a tying school record of 43-points beating SIU 78-65. Hyde didn’t tally up as many points as last year, but she led the Mastodons with 24 total points.

Stein decided to slightly alter the original line-up, adding walk-on sophomore guard Hannah Shores. Shores has been playing well in the last few games and scored 9 points against IPFW.

During the second half the Salukis came out running as they went on a 4-0 run with a long two-point shot by Shores to cut the IPFW lead to 40-37.

Junior guard Cartaesha Macklin captured her 1000th point to add another accomplishment to her college career. She is the 28th member of SIU women’s basketball to do so. Macklin scored her twelfth point of the night with just over eight minutes left.

IPFW soon found itself in foul trouble as they put SIU in the bonus. Although the Mastodons gave the Salukis opportunities to score at the free throw line, the women were unable to convert.

SIU went 43.3 percent from the field, and shot 35.7 percent from the free-throw line. They were not only beat during game play, but as the game came to a pause, IPFW made its free throws count. The Mastodons shot 91 percent from the free-throw line, only missing two throughout the entire game.

“If we knew why we were missing free throws we would have probably changed that,” Stein said. “But at the end of the day we have to get better at them because there’s not an excuse for it.”

IPFW played zone defense against the Salukis. SIU stayed in man-to-man defense but still struggled as they were outscored 41-33 in the second half.

IPFW extended its largest lead to 18 points with 2:44 remaining. Macklin and Pierre, two of SIU’s leading scorers spent time on the bench in foul trouble.

“Having them sit so early puts you in the hole right away,” Stein said. “We don’t have a lot of help inside and that’s yet another struggle because we need someone else who can defend a quick post player.”

The Salukis will head to Champaign on Nov. 21 where they will compete for their first season win against the University of Illinois.