Time is running out on the Dawgs

With 11 games left in the conference season, the SIU women's basketball team is thirsting for a win

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Just 11 games are left until the Missouri Valley Conference tournament commences in Des Moines, Iowa.

And if the SIU women's basketball team (4-12, 0-7) has any hope of playing in the MVC tournament, they have just six weeks left to leapfrog Illinois State, who would be the eighth and final team to compete in the tournament- and the Redbirds have a three-game lead.

But before the Salukis make any move, they have to get that elusive first conference win.

"I think there is definitely a sense of urgency," said SIU head coach Lori Opp. "These kids want to win the game more than [anyone] wants them to win. They are the ones out there playing as hard as they possibly can. The thing is they don't always make the best decisions.

"Things don't always go their way. But they are still working hard."

A stronger effort has been glaring in the past few games.

Against Middle Tennessee State on Tuesday night, the Salukis chiseled the Lady Raider's lead to 48-46 with 13:50 before MTSU pulled away.

The Salukis have also shown an impressive effort at the beginning of games, as was evident when they opened with a 15-1 blitzkrieg against Illinois State on Jan. 21.

Players and coaches have both expressed a problem hindering the Dawgs is they have yet to play consistently for a full 40 minutes in a game this season.

Another quandary is that SIU could be playing not to lose, and that could attribute to them not playing consistently in both halves.

As SIU searches for ways to pull off a win to end its dismal nine-game losing streak, a solution could be finding the right combination in the backcourt.

At the beginning of the season, senior Molly McDowell and junior-college transfer Dana Pinkston teamed up in the backcourt. But Hillary Phillips has replaced Pinkston ever since the Illinois State game.

"We have been juggling guards," Opp said. "We are trying to find the guards that honestly play the best together. And I don't know if we have found that combination. We are still going to keep looking at that."

McDowell, who leads SIU with 13.3 points per game, said she thinks mental errors have been butchering the Salukis recently, and the 25 turnovers SIU coughed up against MTSU suggest she could be correct.

Opp shared the same sentiment. In conference play, SIU has a horrid 99-163 turnover-to-assist ratio.

With all the problems aside, the Salukis hope at some point the hard work will pay off.

"It is not a lost cause," Opp said. "[People] may feel like it is, but we have got 11 conference games left. [Being] 4-12 does not make them bad basketball players, it just makes them a bad team right now."

Reporter Zack Creglow can be reached at zcreglow@dailyegyptian.com