SIUC women’s basketball coach Cindy Scott does not expect her five new Saluki freshmen to carry the team, but their presence will give the Salukis the depth they lacked last season.

I think we are fortunate in the fact that we don’t have to rely on our freshmen immediately, Scott said. We do as time progresses because we don’t have good depth without them.

I hope we can get by the first couple of games without being heavily dependent on them and give them a chance to see things and experience things a little bit.

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Last season, the Salukis went 14-14 overall and 9-9 in the Missouri Valley Conference, including a fourth-place finish in the conference.

The team is without graduated point guard Kasia McClendon, and Scott is looking for leadership from senior center Theia Hudson and senior guard Beth Hasheider.

Hudson averaged 15.3 points per game last season and was an important post player for the Salukis. Hasheider averaged 2.5 points per game as a backup to McClendon, who was named MVC Defensive Player of the Year in her last three seasons.

But Scott also is looking for more from sophomore center Melaniece Bardley and sophomore guard Meredith Jackson.

Scott’s Salukis relied on the freshmen duo last season because of a lack of depth. Jackson responded last season with a 44 percent three-point field goal shooting average, which led the conference and ranked sixth in the nation. Bardley put up an average of 6.6 points per game and led the Salukis in rebounds seven times last season.

Now that she has some experience, Bardley is ready to be a leader for the freshmen.

I think my role this year is to run the floor as best I can and post up a lot more, Bardley said. I know the importance of our games. I am going to pass on my knowledge to the freshmen who have come here and make them play harder.

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Playing hard is something the freshmen know how to do. All five freshmen averaged more than 14 points per game and have been leaders on winning teams.

Freshman guard Tiffany Traylor was team captain for the Regina High School in Detroit and helped her team make it to the state semi-finals the last two years in a row.

At the center position, freshman Kristine Abramowski averaged 14.5 points and 9.2 rebounds per game last season for Freeport High School. Abramowski was an all-conference player her senior year.

Freshman guard Maria Niebrugge averaged 19.2 points per game and helped Teutopolis High School win the state championship her sophomore year. She finished sixth last season in Illinois’ Ms. Basketball.

Another freshman guard, Terica Hathaway, averaged 36.5 points per game in high school and was named Player of the Year in Kentucky last season.

Hathaway said she has set realistic goals for herself during her freshman year because she knows that it is going to be tough to score the way she did in high school.

I feel I can come off the bench as a two or three [shooting guard or small forward], Hathaway said. I hope to get as many minutes as I can, but I expect not (to get) a lot. I won’t score as many as I did in high school, but I believe that I can improve as a player and be a good college player.

Hathaway is not the only freshman at SIUC to be voted the best player in a state. Last season, Saluki freshman forward Courtney Smith earned the distinction of being Ms. Basketball in Illinois.

Smith led the Carlyle High School team to two state championships. Last season, she averaged 23.6 points per game.

One of the reasons Smith has been successful as a player is the help she has received from her father.

Every day I had to dribble up and down that country road a mile going down with one hand and back with the other, Smith said. I was the big girl in grade school, and he (her dad) always told me that it will add more to your game if you can handle the ball instead of being a big girl who has no ball-handling skills.

Smith said not having her family around will be one of the most difficult aspects of playing college basketball.

The hardest thing is not having my dad coach me because he coached me all through grade school and high school, Smith said. I talk to him every other day. When he asks me how practice is going, I say, Fine.’ He analyzes it. Well, what is fine?’ It is going to be a long four years if he is going to analyze everything I say about practice.

One reason Smith chose to come to SIUC is because Carlyle is only 70 miles from Carbondale.

This is a very basketball-oriented area, Smith said. Everybody loves basketball around here. Also, I didn’t want to leave the following I had, and I didn’t think my parents were ready for me to go far away because they couldn’t follow me.

More than anything, she wanted to play at a school that shares her philosophy about basketball.

Losing is not something I am accustomed to, Smith said. Basketball is my true love, and for me, I will never be accustomed to losing in basketball, and I know the coaches feel the same. As long as everyone has that concept, we can be very successful.