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Box Score
CARBONDALE, Ill. – The IUPUI women’s basketball team struggled from the field and could not stop the easy transition buckets for Southern Illinois as the Salukis ran past the Jaguars, 77-63 Thursday evening at SIU Arena.
Cartaesha Macklin scored 27 points for the Salukis and when she wasn’t scoring, she drove past IUPUI defenders and found her teammates for wide open three’s as they connected on 9-of-17 attempts from downtown.
“I would say this is the most disappointing loss since I’ve been here only because I know what we are capable of,” said head coach
Austin Parkinson. “We said before the game that we have to rebound and we have to stop their two leading scorers, but they played hard and their two best players competed at a level that we didn’t.”
In addition to Macklin’s 27 points Teri Oliver tacked on 22 points on 7-of-11 shooting, including 5-of-9 from long distance.
“Our team defense is poor right now for whatever reason but I do know that when we play our next game and people come watch us on Sunday, we will play defense and we will guard somebody,” Parkinson added. “When you are on the road you have to have the right formula to win games and it starts with defense. We didn’t compete tonight but we will regroup and come back and play hard on Sunday.”
The first half was a half of runs beginning with the Salukis sprinting out to a 7-0 lead just 1:45 into the game.
Despite the Salukis quick start, the Jags turned up their defensive intensity and used four points apiece by
Dawn Luster and
Emily Phillips during a 10-0 run to put IUPUI in front, 10-7, with 14:00 to play.
Just as the Jaguars looked to have found an offensive rhythm, SIU responded with a 16-2 run spanning from the 10:35 mark to the 7:05 mark catapulting the Salukis in front, 23-12.
In the final seven minutes of the first half, 2-of-7 shooting and careless turnovers continued to hurt the Jags as Southern Illinois pushed its lead to 38-20 entering the half.
SIU opened the second half on a 7-0 run to widen its lead to 25 points, before a 7-0 IUPUI response brought its deficit back to 18 points by the first media timeout.
A
Janna Eichelberger free throw with 15:13 to play reduced the Jags halftime deficit by one point, but a 10-0 rebuttal from the Salukis expanded their margin to 27 points, 57-30, at the 13:21 mark.
After the SIU lead swelled to 30 points at the under-eight media timeout, IUPUI used four points from
Nevena Markovic, a bucket from Eichelberger, and an old-fashioned three-point play from #Del’Niqua Bellamy# to close within 70-49.
Down the stretch another IUPUI spurt brought the Jaguars deficit below 20 points, but it was too little too late as the Salukis picked up a 77-63 victory.
Markovic led IUPUI in scoring with 12 points, while
Clara Mitchell pulled down a season-best nine rebounds.
The Jaguars turned 28 Southern Illinois turnovers into 28 points, but the Salukis doubled up the Jags in the paint, 36-18.
IUPUI is back at home on Sunday, Dec. 11, when it welcomes the Indiana Hoosiers to The Jungle for a 2 p.m. tip. Sunday’s game will mark the first time the Hoosiers will play IUPUI on the Jags home floor.
