Saluki women prepare for tonight’s game that will determine whether they make MVC tournament

Time is running short for the SIU women’s basketball team.

With two games remaining, the Salukis must win tonight at Southwest Missouri State and Saturday at Wichita State.

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But Illinois State and Evansville must also lose their remaining games for the Salukis to slide into the final slot in the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament.

Tonight’s SMS game is the first test for the Salukis, who have lost their last two games.

The Lady Bears have won three of their last four games after a four-game losing streak. This is a trend that the Bears have followed all season.

“They’ve just been on a roller coaster ride, real inconsistent, up and down all year,” senior forward Megan Miller said.

The inconsistency could be blamed on the Lady Bears’ youth. Only one player, Charlotte Nelson, is a senior, and she averages fewer than eight minutes a game.

SMS’ leading scorer, freshman Kari Koch, has scored 23 or more points in each of her team’s last three games,

“She’s settled into life at the Division I level,” Saluki head coach Lori Opp said of the freshman phenom. “She’s a very nice shooter, capable of scoring, and has proven that in the last few games.”

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Miller said Saluki forward Hillary Phillips should be able to stifle Koch.

“[Koch is} kind of short. With Hillary’s long arms, Hillary would be good,” Miller said.

The Lady Bears defeated SIU 69-56 Jan. 3 in the conference opener, but things have changed since then.

“Just like any other team in the conference, they’ve gotten better and improved,” Opp said. “And I think we’ve gotten better since the first time we played them.”

The Lady Bears, who shot 51 percent in that game, are the best shooting team in the league at nearly 49 percent despite not having a superior inside presence.

“They have a lot of good, quick guards that can create for themselves and make some good shots,” Miller said.

The Lady Bears’ zone defense is something that the Salukis will have to take advantage of though.

“Hopefully we’ll be able to shoot the ball well,” McDowell said. “They play the 2-3 zone a lot. Hopefully, we’ll be able to take advantage of some gaps in that and really shoot the ball well.”

The Salukis will not just have to contend with those on the court. SMS averages more than 6,000 fans per game, far more fans than the 423 fans SIU averaged this season.

In all three games with more than 1,500 or more fans this season, the Salukis have been blown out. Most recently it was a 92-53 loss in front of 2,565 spectators at Indiana State.

Senior guard Molly McDowell remembers the atmosphere during SMS’ Final Four season two years ago.

“It was unbelievable going in there in front of a standing room only crowd and hearing them yell and chant nasty things at you,” McDowell said.

There will undoubtedly be empty seats at the John Q. Hammons Center, which holds more than 9,000 fans, this year.

But it would still be a tough environment for the Salukis to prepare for.

“We’re going to have to feed off their crowd and make it play into an advantage for us instead of a complete advantage for them, make that hype us up,” McDowell said.

Regardless of what the Lady Bears or their fans bring, the Salukis will be playing with all-out effort, knowing that a loss means no tournament.

“We don’t have anything to lose,” McDowell said. ‘We gotta put it all out on the line and just play. I think if we go out and have fun and play with reckless abandon, then we have nothing to hang our heads about.”

Reporter Ethan Erickson can be reached at [email protected]