SIU women’s basketball picked up arguably its biggest win of the season last time out against Northern Iowa, but wasn’t able to repeat its previous successes.

All Missouri State needed Friday was one big quarter to propel itself past SIU in Springfield, Missouri, 73-59.

After a close first quarter, Missouri State (12-10, 8-3 Missouri Valley Conference) went to work by shutting down the Saluki offense in the second. SIU (11-12, 5-7 MVC) only made three of its 11 shots in the quarter, while the Bears made five plus five free throws to turn a one-point lead into a 10-point lead by the time the halftime buzzer sounded.

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From then on, the Salukis wouldn’t get within seven points of the Bears.

Other than that one quarter, SIU mostly kept pace with Missouri State throughout the night, however a large part of its offense went missing in the game.

The interior trio made up of senior Kim Nebo and freshmen Nicole Martin and Lauren Hartman combined to score 29 points against UNI, but was held to nine by the Bears. Nebo broke her streak of three straight double-doubles, scoring three points and grabbing four rebounds before fouling out early in the fourth quarter.

As has been the case with a majority of the Salukis’ losses this year, SIU struggled to get the ball in the basket.

Senior guard Rishonda Napier and junior guard Kylie Giebelhausen scored a combined 36 points, but needed 36 shots to do so. Outside of them, the Salukis could muster just 23 points on 7-21 shooting.

SIU was also plagued by turnovers, committing 17 in total. Missouri State took full advantage, scoring 22 points off of those turnovers.

The loss puts SIU in a tie with Bradley for sixth place in the MVC at 5-7, with four games left before the conference tournament.

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SIU’s next game will be a crucial one against fourth place Wichita State (11-11, 6-5 MVC), a team that sits just a game and a half above the Salukis in standings. The teams face off at 2 p.m. on Sunday in Wichita, Kansas.

Staff writer Sean Carley can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @SeanMCarley.

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