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Early injuries, foul trouble dampen SIU's night

Dawgs fall 88-71 on the road to Tennessee Tech, lose fifth in a row

From the moment the SIU women's basketball team arrived in Cookeville, Tenn., for its non-conference game with Tennessee Tech, things started going awry.

Key reserve forward Jodi Heiden - whose double-double against the Golden Eaglettes last season led the Salukis (0-5) to a 70-66 come-from-behind victory - was injured in the afternoon shoot around, forcing her to spend some time in the emergency room rather than preparing for the game.

The dislocated ankle confined the senior, who is averaging 8.3 points and 4.3 rebounds, to the bench for the entire night and possibly for much longer.

The loss of Heiden was soon followed by freshman forward Bernettra Grayer, who went down in the first half with an injury of her own and never returned.

With the injuries down low and early foul trouble once again hindering the Salukis' attack, Tech (1-3) jumped out to a 14-point halftime lead on the way to the 88-71 victory Wednesday night in front of 1,168 fans at Hooper Eblen Center.

"It would have been nice to have Jodi, and I think it did [affect the team's play], no question. She's played pretty tough the last couple games," SIU head coach Lori Opp said. "But I don't want to make any excuses. When something like that happens, you have to have someone step up, and unfortunately no one did tonight other than Wendy [Goodman]."

The Salukis had five people in double figures, led by Danette Jones' career-high 17, but it wasn't enough. Goodman filled in nicely for the injured Heiden, putting up career-highs in points (12) and rebounds (9) in 27 minutes. But she alone wasn't able to compensate down low for the loss of Heiden and two early fouls to starting post players Katie Berwanger and Tiffany Crutcher.

The Golden Eaglettes were able to hang with the Salukis in the rebounding category as a result, an area Opp felt her team had a huge advantage in entering the game.

Tech grabbed the same number of boards as the Dawgs, 30, but it was 10 offensive rebounds that were key, with many coming in the form of put-backs during its game-breaking 21-2 late first-half run.

"They shouldn't have had 10 offensive boards," Opp said. "We had good help, but then we didn't have good rotation for the blockout."

The Golden Eaglettes also managed to hit 11 threes on the night after making just 11 in their previous three games. None were more important than two consecutive by Tech's Casey Bradford that increased the lead to 24 with 12:29 to play in the game.

"They hit a couple shots early, and they just got their confidence," Opp said.

Tech also capitalized on SIU's sloppy play, scoring 24 points off 21 Saluki turnovers.

The Dawgs had a chance late to at least make a game out of it. Trailing 71-49, SIU put together an 11-3 run to cut the Tech lead to 14 with about six minutes to play. But the Golden Eaglettes came out of a timeout with eight unanswered points to put the Salukis away for good.

"You can't let runs like that happen when you're trying to come back in a game and they call a timeout to make adjustments," Opp said. "You can't come out of that very same timeout flat. You've got to be ready to play."

The game started off back and forth with an 8-0 run by Tech being followed by a 13-3 run by SIU to make the score 15-11 in the Salukis' favor. The score was tied at 20-20 at the midway point in the first half.

But the 21-2 late first-half run that ensued would end up being the difference for the Dawgs, who fell short in their attempt to pick up their first win of the season.

"We aren't playing together real well as a team, and we don't have the same people showing up every day," Opp said. "We've got to have consistency, and we've got to have kids we know we can count on and who understand their roles.

"I don't think they're to that point yet."

SIU will take 11 days off during finals week before facing DePaul Dec. 14 at All-State Arena in Chicago.