Women’s Basketball hit the road Friday to take on the Loyola University Ramblers for the second time this season.

The Salukis got of to a late start in tonight’s game, but took off in the second half to win the game 64-41.

The Dawgs won the first meeting against the Ramblers in January and entered tonight’s game looking to sweep their opponents for the season. SIU leads Loyola 10-7 in the all-time series and has won six of the last seven meetings amongst the two teams.

Despite Southern winning the matchup, the Ramblers are still ranked sixth in the – two spots above the Salukis.

The first period opened with a mid range jumper from junior forward Nicole Martin but the Ramblers responded immediately scoring a layup on the next possession.

After scoring the layup, Loyola (12-13, MVC 6-8) went on a 3-1 run against the Salukis to put themselves ahead 5-9.

The next four minutes of the quarter were scoreless for both teams, but riddled with turnovers on both ends.

The scoring drought was finally broken at 2:49 on a three point play by sophomore forward Abby Brockmeyer. The basket by Brockmeyer cut the Rambler lead to one.

Just as SIU began to make gains, Loyola’s offense took off once again on a 4-1 run. This run ended the quarter and left the scoring entering the second period at 16-11.

Staying on trend, Martin opened the scoring for the second period scoring a layup and free throw to put the Dawgs within two at 16-14.

It took nearly two minutes for the Ramblers to respond as they scored a layup in the middle of the lane.

Back-to-back buckets from freshman guard Caitlin Link earned the Salukis their first lead of the game at 19-18.

A mid range jumper from Martin then pushed the lead to three points, but it was cut back down to two just seconds later with a Loyola free throw.

With just 11 seconds left in the half, the Ramblers scored a jumper to tie it up 21-21, but Martin once again came through for her team as she scored a buzzer beating jumper to put the Dawgs up 23-21 at halftime.

Quarter three opened with four straight SIU baskets – three of the four belonging to Martin. The fourth came on a layup from sophomore guard Makenzie Silvey.

These baskets marked Martin’s 12th point of the night and put Southern up 30-21 on Loyola, just over five minutes remaining in the quarter. At the five minute mark, the Ramblers were finally able to score on the Dawg defense, but Silvey responded to this with another layup to kill any forming momentum.

After another Loyola layup, SIlvey caught fire draining two back to back three pointers to extend the SIU lead to 38-25.

Brockmeyer followed suit scoring a layup to push the Salukis to the 40 point mark with two minutes on the clock.

In the remaining amount of time the Ramblers were only able to score one freethrow and the period was ended on another SIU buzzer beater with a three from freshman guard Payton McCallister.

McCallister went on to open the fourth quarter with a layup in the paint putting her team up by 19 points.

The Ramblers then took off on a 3-1 run to cut the lead down to 16.

Loyola guard Abby O’Connor made two three points on two consecutive possessions to make the score 53-38.

After O’Connor’s three pointers, the Salukis took over the final quarter scoring five straight baskets; this included a layup from Silvey, a free throw from Martin, and three pointers from Brockmeyer and senior center Celina Van Hyfte.

While Loyola drained the final shot of the game, Southern’s lead was too massive for the Ramblers to overcome and the Dawgs (12-12, MVC 5-8) ran away with the 64-41 win.

You can catch the Saluki Women back in action on Sunday as they take on the Valparaiso University Crusaders at 1 p.m.

Sports reporter Tamar Mosby can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter at @mosbytamar.

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