SIUC women’s basketball team attempts to make the University of Illinois its 200th in-state victim Saturday night when the Salukis take on the Illini at SIU Arena.

Since 1960, SIUC has a 199-75 record against 20 other schools in Illinois, with 21 of those victories coming at the expense of the Illini. A Saluki win in the team’s home opener would increase SIUC’s lead to 22-8 in the series.

Saluki women’s basketball head coach Cindy Scott said her squad needs to improve on Monday’s performance against Tennessee Tech if they hope to improve their record to 2-2.

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The team struggled offensively in the loss, shooting 35.6 percent from the field and 61.5 percent from the free-throw line, in a 66-54 loss to the Golden Eaglettes.

We need to get better offensively, she said. We’re just not very potent offensively right now. We just have to keep working at it.

Senior forward Christel Jefferson said the squad is not expecting the game to be easy, and the team needs to play solid defense and offense to defeat U of I.

As a team, we know it is going to be hard, she said. We need to get the ball going more and get some transition buckets. We have to make smart decisions. We need to play good defense and get some rebounds.

Scott said SIUC’s home-court advantage will help her squad.

It will be nice to be at home and I think the fans will find they like this team, she said.

The Salukis will be without guard Nikki Gilmore for the third consecutive contest.

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Sally Perkins, SIUC’s head athletic trainer, said Gilmore, who was injured Nov. 27 in a drive-by shooting in St. Louis, will probably not see action against the Illini.

It’s doubtful for Saturday, Perkins said. She’s just now walking and has a slight limp.

Perkins said Gilmore will have to pass a series of tests before she can return to the court.

When she can walk without a limp we’ll start her doing some shooting and easy running, she said. As soon as she can jump, run and cut we’ll have her doing those things in practice.

Gilmore said she had hoped to return to play against U of I.

My wish was to play in Saturday’s game, she said. They told me today (Thursday) that I’m probably not going to play Saturday, so I guess I have to look forward to Vandy on Tuesday.

Scott said that her team will have to fight through a rough schedule at the beginning of the season, but expects her squad to be ready for conference play.

We’re just going to be patient, she said. If we can just get through December and get to January, we’ll be OK.

Tip-off is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. at SIU Arena.