wb-ball Indiana St. recap

The Salukis postseason dreams remain alive with a blowout victory over Indiana State University Thursday that handed SIUC sole possession of eighth place in the Missouri Valley Conference.

Bradley University, which shared the No. 8 spot with SIUC going into the night, fell to Wichita State University Thursday. Only eight teams are invited to the conference’s postseason dance.

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The Salukis (3-7, 6-12) snap a three-game skid, and halt a two-game winning streak for Indiana State University (6-4, 12-6) by beating the Sycamores 68-49 at Terre Haute, Ind.

Sophomore forward Meredith Jackson threw the biggest dagger of the night, scoring five of her 20 points consecutively to kill a second half Sycamore charge. ISU had narrowed the scoring margin to two shortly after intermission.

Also credited for the victory was freshman center Kristine Abramowski, who got the start for the Salukis in an ongoing juggle of the starting five.

I think one of the biggest keys to this game, although the numbers do not show a lot with Kristine Abramowski, one for three, three boards, three assists and two blocks, but she really enabled us to continue our offense, women’s coach Cindy Scott said. She is so sure with the basketball.

Scott also praised Abramowski for her defensive work on Sycamore senior guard Georgia Bottoms. Bottoms finished with 14 points and was the leading Sycamore scorer.

Senior center Theia Hudson had 18 points and ended the 0-9 drought from the field that she suffered Saturday in the 73-54 loss to Drake University. Sophomore forward O’Desha Proctor also chipped in 12 points.

When the Salukis played the Sycamores at the SIU Arena on Jan 4, the Salukis did not have anyone in double figures.

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Scott said the balanced attack of the Salukis Thursday indicated that the team was beginning to run the offense the way it is intended.

We really have tried to stress, Let’s get in our offense, let’s stay in our offense,’ Scott said. Set screens, get good shots.’ And we did that. I could probably count maybe three shots that we forced tonight that were not good shots. Other than that, they were shots from our offense.

All season the Salukis have struggled with shooting, but the Salukis shot 50 percent from the field Thursday. The Sycamores lead the conference in scoring defense, holding opponents to 60.2 points per game.

The Salukis also held sophomore guard Amy Amstutz to eight points and only three rebounds. Amstutz is the third-leading scorer in the conference with an average of 18.4 points per game and leads the conference in rebounding with 8.5 rebounds per game.

The Salukis took command early, and for only the fourth time this season, the Salukis took a lead with them at halftime. And not surprisingly, the Salukis are 4-0 when they have a halftime lead.

Scott said she is not even talking about the record with the teams but is looking at positives. She said the win against Indiana State showed her that with confidence the Salukis can play well, and it was fun to watch the team play well.

I think we all had a lot of fun tonight, Scott said. I thought the kids played extremely hard, and they played smart. I can’t say enough of them trying to do what they were supposed to do. They executed, and I am very happy for them.