SIUC women’s basketball took on an international flavor Sunday afternoon when the Salukis lost 83-62 to Uralmash-Russia at SIU Arena in their first exhibition game of the 1995-96 season.

SIUC came out strong in the first half, outscoring Uralmash 33-30, but the height of the Russian squad challenged the Saluki offense inside the paint, and Uralmash scored 53 points to SIUC’s 29 in the last 20 minutes of play. Six players on the Uralmash roster were at least six feet tall.

Nikki Gilmore, who scored 15 points for the Salukis, said the Russian’s height did not let her play her game.

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They were very big, I couldn’t penetrate, she said. That’s taking away more than half of my game if I can’t penetrate. What I tried to do was penetrate and kick out.

Nadezhda Murilova, a candidate for Russia’s Olympic team, was a driving force on the court for Uralmash. Murilova led her squad in scoring, with 36 points in the contest.

SIUC head coach Cindy Scott said Murilova could not be contained.

A couple times, LaQuanda Chavors played awesome defense, she said. She can get the shot off over you. She’s good.

Beth Hasheider, who is one of the players expected to fill the void left by the departure of Cari Hassell, started at guard and helped the Salukis from the outside. Hashieder scored 9 points in the game, including one three-point field goal.

Scott said in an attempt to give her players time on the floor, guard Kasia McClendon did not see action until the second half. McClendon came off the bench to score six points for SIUC.

We just wanted to see some of our young kids play some minutes with some kids that hadn’t had an opportunity to play, she said.

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Playing Uralmash will benefit her squad when the Salukis play Vanderbilt, Scott said.

It’s probably very similar to playing Vandy, because that’s how Vandy plays, she said. They’re big, work the ball, very smart. So that was about as good of test to playing Vandy that we’ll have before we play them.

Despite her squad’s loss, Scott said she was pleased with the level of play at this time in the season and that she viewed the game as a good experience for her players.

I’m quite happy with where we’re at right now, she said. I feel very comfortable with what we did and what we saw and with what we can do the rest of the year. Now we’ve just got to be ready two weeks from today.

The Salukis take on the St. Louis Express in their second exhibition game of the season at 7:05 p.m. Wednesday at SIU Arena.