DE Assistant Sports Editor

Win or lose, there are 40 minutes to every basketball game; a harsh lesson the SIUC women’s basketball team taught the University of Evansville Saturday.

Overcoming a mediocre first-half performance on behalf of both teams, SIUC managed to defeat Evansville 72-52, improving its record to 10-2 in the Missouri Valley Conference.

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Evansville led throughout the first half prior to going cold in the second half.

SIUC women’s basketball coach Cindy Scott, who voiced her fear of Evansville earlier in the week, said she was relieved to emerge the victor in Saturday’s conference matchup.

It was a struggle, but coming away with a 20-point win on the road certainly feels good, Scott said. I think we really played very well in the second half. Offensively we did not shoot the ball well all evening.

The Salukis shot a mediocre 14 of 26 from the field in the first half and faired no better in the second.

However, despite shooting a meager 30 percent from the field in the second half, the Salukis were able to hand the Aces their 11th loss of the season in conference action, edging close to first place in the MVC.

SIUC’s offensive attack was led in part by senior forward Christel Jefferson and sophomore forward Theia Hudson, who combined for 27 of SIUC’s points. Jefferson contributed 13 points while Hudson added 14.

Scott said it was the play of Hudson and Jefferson that made the difference in the game.

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By games end, four Salukis were in double figures a statistic very pleasing to the eyes of Scott.

Anytime we can look down and see four kids in double figures we feel good about that, Scott said. We did shoot the ball well offensively in the first half.

Junior guard Kasia McClendon contributed 12 points while senior guard Nikki Gilmore added 10.

Although she was held scoreless in the game’s final 20 minutes, forward Jill Sajevic led the Aces with 12 points on the afternoon.

With Saturday’s win the Salukis are in second place in the Valley, directly on the heels of unbeaten Southwest Missouri State University. Currently, SMSU’s record remains untarnished at 11-0 in the MVC.

The Salukis return home to host Bradley University Thursday evening. Tip-off is 7:05 at SIU Arena.