Women’s Northern Iowa Recap

Everything seemed to work for the University of Northern Iowa. Nothing went right for SIUC.

The Panthers hit their shots, made their free throws and pulled down the rebounds. UNI took the lead with about seven minutes left in the first half and never looked back.

Advertisement

UNI went on a 24-10 scoring run in the closing minutes of the first half and coasted to a 68-54 win over the Saluki women’s basketball team Saturday.

SIUC coach Cindy Scott said the Salukis put forth a poor effort defensively, and it cost them the game.

I thought it was a very lackluster performance on our part, particularly defensively, Scott said. We didn’t guard anybody, and they did a great job of shooting the basketball. It was a very weak defensive effort.

Sophomore forward Melaniece Bardley, who fouled out with just under 10 minutes to play in the game, said SIUC’s defense was its undoing.

We had no defense at all, Bardley said. Our defense was nonexistent. I think that would be a good word to describe it.

But the Salukis’ troubles were not just limited to defense for Scott.

We really did a poor job of boxing out, Scott said. I thought we did a poor job of shooting in the first half. It was not a good game. I would be hard-pressed to pinpoint anything we did well.

Advertisement*

The Salukis were able to get the ball down low to senior center Theia Hudson and Bardley but came up short.

I thought we did a good job in the first half of running our stuff and getting the ball inside to Theia and Melaniece underneath, Scott said. We didn’t get the ball down. Instead of playing a little bit harder on the defense end, we have a tendency to play less hard on the defensive end.

We really build confidence when we start off shooting well. It was another one of those nights when the ball was not going to go down for us.

The Salukis shot 29 percent from the field in the first half and 33 percent for the game, while the Panthers shot 42 percent from the field in the first half and 37 percent for the game.

Freshman forward Courtney Smith was the only bright spot for the Salukis, leading the team in scoring with 16 points, nine rebounds and four steals in 37 minutes of play. Hudson was the only other Saluki to score in double figures, putting up 12 points.

Courtney played very well, Scott said. She showed that she can score, and I was pleased with her effort. Other than that, there was not too much good out there.

But there were plenty of good things happening for the Panthers. UNI placed 10 players in the scoring column. Only two players were in double digits, but five players had five or more points.

Allison Starr led the Panthers with a game-high 19 points to go along with six rebounds.

The Panthers, now 3-4 in the Missouri Valley Conference, have won two in a row. SIUC moves to 2-5 in the conference and 5-10 overall.

The Salukis are still in contention for one of eight spots in the conference tournament in March, but Scott believes they need to buckle down and begin to find ways of improving.

She said the team is not necessarily still feeling the frustration of the recent six-game losing streak but has some fundamental problems that need to be resolved.

I think we are not a very good basketball team in all honesty, and we have got to work a lot harder to become a decent basketball team, Scott said. There aren’t a lot of things we do very well. We don’t defend very well, we don’t rebound very well and we don’t shoot very well.