SIU Women’s basketball picks up fifth-straight win, defeats Illinois State, 66-53

NORMAL, Ill. – The Southern Illinois women’s basketball team won its fifth-straight game Thursday night, defeating the Illinois State Redbirds, 66-53 inside Redbird Arena.

Three scored in double figures for Southern, who improves to 18-9 overall and 11-4 in Missouri Valley Conference play. With the win, the Salukis move into a second place tie with Missouri State and sit just one game behind Northern Iowa with three games to go in the race for the regular-season title and number one seed in the MVC Tournament.

“I really liked our effort today,” said SIU head coach Cindy Stein. “It wasn’t a smooth sailing but at the same time we just had different kids step up again and do some great things. When we needed to put them away, Rishonda Napier and Dyana Pierre stepped up.”

Pierre notched her 50^th career double-double, finishing with 10 points on 5-of-6 shooting to go along with 10 boards in 26 minutes of play. Napier led all scorers with 18 points, with 15 of those points coming in the second half. Macklin was the third Saluki to score in double figures, adding 10 points and five assists in the win.

All 11 who dressed for Southern played, with nine different Salukis scoring at least a field goal. Sophomore Celina VanHyfte led the reserves, tallying nine points, four rebounds and two steals in 25 minutes off the bench.

“I really feel like our kids are stepping up and playing a part,” said Stein. “I thought Celina had some tremendous defensive stops when we needed to give Dyana some rest.”

The win also completes the first season sweep of the Redbirds (6-20, 4-11 MVC) since the 2005-06 season. It marks the fourth-straight game the Salukis have shot over 40% from the field, connecting on 49.2% (30-of-61) of their field goal attempts while holding Illinois State to just 31.7% (20-of-63) from the field.

The Redbirds got on the scoreboard first, connecting on their first three-point attempt. The Salukis countered with a layup by Macklin and followed with Napier’s first three-pointer of the game to take a 5-3 lead. Illinois State tied the game up on a steal and a layup by Octavia Crump. Southern grew its lead to 16-11 before the end of the first, with 10 different Salukis playing, and seven scoring in the opening quarter.

Southern took a 28-19 on a layup by Macklin on a feed from VanHyfte with 3:30 remaining in the second. Illinois State cut the deficit to five, 28-23 thanks to four free throws, but SIU pushed its lead back to seven with Macklin’s 10^th first half point. Pierre later gave Southern a nine point lead, before a Illinois State 3-pointer sent the two teams to the locker room with the Salukis leading 32-26.

Shakeela Fowler got the Redbirds to within three, 32-29 with a 3-pointer to open second half scoring for both teams. That was as close as the Redbirds would get, as Napier made back-to-back baskets to push SIU’s lead to seven, 36-27 with six minutes remaining in the third and SIU went on to outscore Illinois State 16-9 in the third quarter.

The Salukis opened the fourth quarter on an 8-0 run, allowing the Dawgs to cruise to their 18th win of the season.

Southern will try to make it six wins in a row on Sunday, Feb. 28 at Indiana State. Tipoff is set for 2 p.m. EST.