‘ Fortunes have finally changed for the SIU women’s basketball team.

After an eight-game losing streak during which the Salukis went more than a month between wins, they won their second consecutive game Saturday, beating Missouri State 69-58.

SIU came out with a lot of energy, with players on the bench jumping up and down in excitement when the Salukis won the opening tip, hit 3-pointers or forced the Bears into committing turnovers.

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‘Practice has been the exact same way. We’ve been energetic, just having fun and enjoying it, and it’s carrying over to our games,’ said senior forward Jasmine Gibson.

‘Even our shoot-arounds in the morning before our games is high energy; it’s high pace. We’re getting after it and just having fun and enjoying each other.’

SIU (6-12, 2-7 MVC) got 43 combined points from seniors Erica Smith and Gibson, who led the way for the Salukis.

‘It makes a difference when we have those two, and I thought they’ve had great focus the whole weekend and really kind of put this team on their back and did exactly what we expect seniors to do,’ said coach Dana Eikenberg.

Gibson scored a team-high 23 points, adding seven rebounds and shooting 9-for-17 from the field and 2-for-4 from behind the 3-point line.

The four attempts from beyond the arc were a season high for Gibson, who said she took more shots than usual because of all the open looks.

‘They were playing off (me) and I’m comfortable shooting it, so I just took the open shot,’ Gibson said.

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Smith gave the Salukis 20 points on 7-of-12 shooting, and had game highs with 12 rebounds, four assists and three steals.

‘ Eikenberg said Smith was able to create points by being aggressive on the offensive glass.

‘When you talk about Erica Smith, I mean, the kid’s up there,’ Eikenberg said. ‘I can’t even imagine some of those boards she pulls down.’

The Bears (6-14, 2-7 MVC) outscored the Salukis 41-33 in the second half, but SIU had built enough of a lead in the first half to withstand Missouri State’s modest second-half push.

The Salukis went into halftime with a 36-17 lead, never allowing the Bears to have a lead in the entire game. SIU pulled away early, answering a 3-pointer by Missouri State that tied the score at 5-5 before going on an 18-1 run that spanned nine minutes.

The key in the first half was controlling the glass, Eikenberg said, as SIU out-rebounded Missouri State 21-12 in the first half, including 11 offensive rebounds.

‘When we crash the glass, we talk about a lot of things,’ Eikenberg said. ‘We’re not naturally easy scorers, so we got to find other ways, find other ways through offensive boards and you’re going to get easy put backs.’

The Salukis resume their attempt to climb out of last place in the Valley at 7:05 p.m. Thursday at the SIU Arena against Bradley (13-6, 4-4 MVC), which will be the team’s third straight home game.