Saluki center Theia Hudson can breathe a sigh of relief after scoring her 1,000th career point at SIUC and helping her team extend a winning streak Wednesday night.

Hudson, who scored 19 points and now has 1,002 points in her career at SIUC, said she liked getting it done at home but was ready to get her 1,000th point regardless of where she was playing.

I’m just happy to do it anywhere, Hudson said. I wanted it bad. I wanted to hurry and get it over with.

Advertisement

The Salukis crushed the University of Evansville 73-52 Wednesday night at the SIU Arena. The Salukis end a five-game losing streak at home and pick up their third consecutive win.

Women’s head coach Cindy Scott said her team can now relax more with the home win.

It is nice to feel like you can win at home, Scott said. We’re 1-5 at home and not feeling very comfortable here. That was a good game for us to get.

With the victory, the Salukis improve to a record of 8-12 overall and 5-7 in Missouri Valley Conference play.

The Salukis move up in the conference standings, surpassing the University of Northern Iowa, and now have seventh place to themselves. The Panthers are 4-6 in the conference and play Illinois State University at home tonight.

The Aces (0-12, 5-15) have now lost 15 games in a row and remain in the basement of the conference.

A big key in the game was solid defense and overall play of freshman center Kristine Abramowski, who had six steals, three blocks, four assists and six points.

Advertisement*

Defensively, we had held them to their season low, Scott said. I thought Kristine was beautiful. You look across the stats and it is not impressive, but her play is extremely impressive.

The Salukis as a team stopped the Aces on the defensive end, holding them to a dismal 37 percent from the field.

But it was not just defense that was working for the Salukis. They also shot well in both halves, shooting 60 percent from the field in the first half and 50 percent for the game.

In the final eight and a half minutes of the first half, the Salukis went on a 24-7 run and took a 10-point lead with them at the intermission, never looking back.

The Salukis opened the second half with six straight points to take a 41-25 lead. The rest of the game was catch up for the Aces as the Salukis continued to add to their lead.

Freshman forward Courtney Smith was right behind Hudson with 18 points to complement her 12 boards. Sophomore forward O’Desha Proctor also added 12 points.

Factoid:The salukis take on Vanderbilt University at 7:05 p.m. Tuesday at the SIU Arena.