DE Assistant Sports Editor

Sooner or later, all winning streaks must eventually end; The SIUC women’s basketball team is no exception to the rule.

SIUC’s seven game winning streak ground to a halt against Illinois State University last night in a heartbreaking 68-61 conference loss to the Redbirds in Normal.

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Prior to last night’s loss, the Salukis had won four straight against the Redbirds and five of the last six matchups in Normal.

ISU coach Jill Hutchison said it was nice to bring an end to SIUC’s string of victories over her team.

It’s nice to get the monkey off our back, Hutchison said. Our guards did a nice job and we got help from Mel Marcy and Val Trame in the second half because we had trouble scoring in the post.

SIUC struggled right out of the gate against ISU, and could not manage to mount much of an offensive attack the entire game.

Saluki guards Kasia McClendon and Nikki Gilmore, normally the spark to SIUC’s offense, together connected on an unheard of 7-33 from the field.

SIUC coach Cindy Scott said the Redbirds simply proved to be too tough at home, where they are now a perfect 8-0 in Redbird Arena.

We didn’t play very well, Scott said. ISU did a nice job defensively against us and they proved why they are fighting to finish second in this league.

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Nikki and Kasia just couldn’t get the ball to go tonight. When you have your number one and number two scorer’s shooting at that clip, it really takes its toll.

With the loss, SIUC falls to 12-3 in the Missouri Valley Conference, while the Redbirds improve to 11-4.

The first half proved ugly for both teams, with SIUC shooting only 9-37 from the field for a mere 24 percent. However, thanks to 15 ISU turnovers, the Redbirds only led by six at the break, 29-23.

Unfortunately, SIUC’s offensive struggle continued in the second half as the Redbirds managed to build it biggest lead of the game 32-23.

However, the Salukis would not roll over and came back with seven unanswered points, five by McClendon alone, before their offense struggled against a 4-18 performance from the behind the three-point arc.

The Redbirds were paced by the duo of freshman guard Jenny Schmidt and junior guard Mary Jane Johnson, who combined for 38 points.

SIUC was led by senior forward Christel Jefferson, who knocked in 15 points, including nine in the second half. McClendon was the only other Saluki in double digits with 15.

With only three regular-season games remaining, Scott said she hopes the Salukis can rebound from last night’s loss.

We’ve got three games we have to win, Scott said. We did not play well and we can certainly admit it. To shoot the ball as poorly as we did, lets hope that doesn’t happen to us again this season.

We’ll watch the film and hopefully we can learn something from it.

SIUC travels to Terre Haute on Saturday afternoon to take on the Sycamores of Indiana State. Tip-off time is at 1:00.