The SIU women’s basketball team committed 22 turnovers in an 83-68 home loss to Bradley Thursday night. The loss dealt a serious blow to the Salukis conference tournament hopes.

“People didn’t see what these kids are capable of tonight,” a dejected head coach Lori Opp said. “But that’s been our team all year. We’ve been real up and down.”

Illinois State and Evansville, both losers Thursday night, remain two games ahead of SIU in the win column with three games to play for the Salukis.

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“We still got a shot at this,” Opp said. “Everybody’s counting us out and that’s not true.”

Poor shooting also doomed the Salukis, who shot 38 percent and hit less than half of their free throw attempts.

“We got the looks that we wanted to get, honestly,” Opp said. “It just didn’t go our way. There seemed to be a lid on the basket at times.”

In addition to turnovers, fouls also played a big role in the Salukis’ loss. Senior forward Hillary Phillips played seven first-half minutes due to her foul difficulties.

“Hillary does the intangibles. Hillary plays good solid defense,” Opp said. “She does a nice job on the boards. She does a lot of the little things right and always gives good effort.”

After a back-and-forth start to the game, a 17-4 Bradley spurt gave the Braves a 34-18 advantage late in the first half.

Trailing by 13 at half, both teams came out hot to open the second stanza. A Phillips three-pointer cut the Saluki deficit to 10 at 35-45, then Bradley took over.

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Forward Va’Nicia Waterman started and finished a 14-4 run with two three-pointers, putting the Braves up by 20 points. The Salukis (7-17, 3-12 MVC) never got closer than 17 points until the final minute.

“We were a step slow,” Opp said. “We were playing too flat-footed.”

SIU put four players in double figures, but it wasn’t enough to counter Bradley’s depth. Ashley Chelleen’s 17 points and Waterman’s 16 paced the Braves (12-12, 8-7 MVC). Eleven Bradley tallied.

Molly McDowell led the Salukis with 17 points, six in the second half, and nine boards. Phillips, Katie Berwanger and Danette Jones also reached double figure scoring.

Bradley point guard and Mount Vernon native Rasheeda Love outplayed Saluki point guard Dana Pinkston. Pinkston had seven turnovers, while Love had only two to go along with her four steals.

“Tonight [Pinkston] didn’t make some very good decisions,” Opp said. “She played real frustrated.”

Next up for the Salukis is a senior day game with Northern Iowa (14-10, 9-6) Saturday at 2:05. McDowell, Phillips and Megan Miller will play their last games at SIU Arena.

Much like Bradley, The Panthers have numerous weapons. Four players average double figure scoring led by Katie Miller’s nearly 19 points per game. The 5-foot-10 senior forward has led her team to wins in seven of its last nine games.

Sophomore forward Alex Cook has also received her share of accolades. The Decorah, Iowa, product has notched 14 double-doubles this season.

Reigning conference player of the week Amy Swisher averaged nearly 23 points per game in the Panthers’ sweep of Southwest Missouri State and Wichita State.

Opp said that the Panthers’ depth is a weakness.

“If we can make them get into their bench, that should hurt them,” Opp said.

In the previous meeting between the two teams Feb. 2, SIU trailed by three at halftime before the Panthers pulled away. The game would turn out to be a prelude to SIU’s first conference win, which would come in its next outing.

Opp is hoping for a large fan turnout to honor her three seniors and help her team in its attempt to reach the conference tournament.

“It’s dollar day for us, so hopefully that will encourage more people to come out,” Opp said. “It’s fairly cheap entertainment for a buck. Our kids always play hard. I hope that a lot of people turn out for Saturday because those three kids deserve, and really all those kids deserve it.”

“We’re going to give our seniors a great sendoff, and hopefully we’ll do it with a W.”

Reporter Ethan Erickson can be reached at [email protected]