Recap | Women’s Basketball Struggles Late in Loss to Missouri State – Southern Illinois University Athletics

“It’s the same thing that we’ve seen,” head coach Kelly Bond-White said. “We ran out of juice a little bit, ran out of steam.”

The Salukis scored just seven points in the fourth quarter, and were out-scored 15-7 in the final 10 minutes. 

Southern Illinois’ defense started the game off strong, holding the Lady Bears to 5-of-15 shooting from the field, but still trailed 17-14 at the end of the first quarter. Laniah Randle and Jaidynn Mason both had seven points in the opening 10 minutes.

Offensively, SIU shot an efficient 8-of-16 for 17 points in the second quarter while Missouri State scored 13. After one half, the Salukis led, 31-30. 

Both defenses continued to limit the opposing offenses, as neither team reached 20 points again in the third quarter. The Lady Bears posted 17 points compared to SIU’s 14, taking a tight 47-45 lead into the fourth.

In the final 10 minutes, the Salukis were unable to get into a rhythm on offense, scoring seven points on 3-of-15 shooting from the field. Missouri State held-on for the 62-52 win. 

Mason led the team with 21 points in the loss, while Randle had 18 points and nine rebounds. As a team, Southern shot 39% from the field and went 1-of-9 from deep.

In its next game, SIU, now 2-8 in Missouri Valley Conference play, will host Murray State on Friday at 6 p.m. on ESPN+. 

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