On Saturday, the Women’s Basketball (7-12,4-6 MVC) team hosted #2 Valley team Northern Iowa (13-6, 8-2 MVC) on Saturday, looking to get back in the win column. Southern put up a good fight on offense but allowed the second most points their defense has allowed all season with 94, dropping the contest with a 94-81 final score.

The Dawgs actually outshot UNI in shooting percentage, with an impressive 52.4% as a team compared to the Panther’s 49.2%. But it was beyond the arch and at the free throw line where the Panthers pulled this one through. UNI had far more free throw opportunities than the Dawgs had, making 27 of their 33 attempts against the Salukis’ 11 out of 13 attempts. The Panthers also made three more threes than the Dawgs did, going 7 for 22 on those.

Four Salukis made the double-digit mark in points and yet again, it was graduate student Ashley Jones leading the charge on offense with 22 points coming from her. Jones also led in assists with six. Tamara Nard, Shemera Williams, and Promise Taylor rounded it out with 17 coming from Nard and 13 coming from Williams and Taylor.

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The Dawgs broke open the scoring with a layup by Jones and kept things within two to start. A three by junior Quierra Love put the dawgs up by four, but a couple of quick layups for UNI earned them the lead at 21-19. They would expand upon that lead in the second after a three and a couple of quick layups for the Panthers earned them an eight-point lead. Southern kept things within arms reach by keeping it to just a 7-point deficit going into halftime at 48-42.

The Salukis would cut things down to just a three-point deficit off Tamara Nard’s layup with 7:18 to go in the third, but it wouldn’t be close for much longer. The Panthers 11-0 run to round out the third helped them edge out to a 16-point lead with just over 40 seconds left in the quarter. Southern was able to get within eight points from the Panthers after another layup by Nard with 6:38 to go, but that was as far as their play would take them. With 10 of the Panthers, final 12 points coming off layup opportunities. The Dawgs would drop their sixth valley game of the year.

Southern will look to end their losing streak with another home conference matchup against Missouri State on Wednesday. That matchup will start with a 6 pm tip-off time.

Sports editor Joseph Bernard can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @Jojobernard2001. 

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