The basket must have had a lid on it.

SIUC was left shaking its head, as poor shooting led the Salukis to a 66-48 season-opening loss to the Lady Raiders of Middle Tennessee State University Sunday. The team struggled offensively, shooting 28.6 percent from the field.

The Salukis scored only five points in the first twelve minutes of the first half and trailed MTSU 35-21 at half-time.

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Shooting did not improve in the second half, with the squad scoring just 27 points in the last 20 minutes of play.

Christel Jefferson, who led SIUC with 20 points in the contest, said scoring was low because the squad was not tough enough on the offensive boards.

We were only getting one shot, she said. We weren’t getting many offensive rebounds, so that hurt us. She (coach Cindy Scott) expects a lot of rebounds from our four and five players. Right now it’s just the fours, so we’re working on our centers so they can get some too.

SIUC also turned the ball over 13 times in the game. Jefferson said a lack of patience resulted in the turnovers.

We were rushing ourselves trying to catch up, she said. We got out of our offense.

Guard Nikki Gilmore, who was held to only five points, said the team had difficulty running their regular offense.

The team that was on the floor was not us, she said. We didn’t make good decisions in our offense. We weren’t running our offense well as a team.

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SIUC women’s coach Cindy Scott said it is early in the season and her team is still developing.

Right now I think our kids are still very confused about their roles offensively, she said. We couldn’t have shot any worse at Middle Tennessee. We are a much better team than we showed, but we’ve got improvements to make in all facets of the game.

The Salukis are hoping to bounce back tonight at Murray State as SIUC travels to Racer Arena hoping to extend its winning streak over the Racers to 10 games. The team has not lost at Racer Arena since 1981. Tonight’s tip-off is scheduled for 6 p.m.