Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Southern Illinois University
Tenn Martin
Women's Basketball Thumps Tennessee-Martin Despite Power Outage
11/29/2001 | 12:00:00 | Women's Basketball
Nov. 29, 2001
Martin, Tenn. - Junior guard Molly McDowell scored a season-high 23 points, while senior Holly Teague pitched in 12 points and dished out a career-high 11 assists to lead Southern Illinois (2-2) to an 82-67 win over Tennessee-Martin (1-5) Thursday in a wild one at Skyhawk Arena.
The win marked both the Salukis' first road win this season and third straight over the Skyhawks as UTM has now dropped its last five games.
SIU never trailed in the game as the Salukis scored on their first five possessions of the first half to take an early 10-6 lead. Geshla Woodard split a pair of free throws to ignite the rally which ended on a jumper by Holly Teague with 17:15 remaining.
Tennessee-Martin battled back to cut the lead to 12-11 when LaShanta Morrow connected on a jumper (15:19), but the Skyhawk threat didn't last for long as the Salukis took control.
Up by one, the Salukis went on a 10-2 run fueled by back-to-back McDowell three-pointers. Leading 22-13 with 12:52 remaining, the Dawgs continued to attack stringing together a 21-15 spurt over the next 8:02 to take a 15-point lead (43-28). Hillary Phillips pitched in five points, while Danielle Lawary netted seven straight in just three minutes off the bench to steer the march.
Still not finished, a pair of Tiffany Crutcher free throws, a Christine Perry three-pointer and a free throw by Danette Jones then enabled the Salukis to coast to a commanding 49-32 lead at the break.
SIU shot a sizzling 17-of-34 (.500) from the field and 11-of-14 (.786) from the free throw line in the opening stanza. McDowell and Teague each scored eight points to propel the Saluki offense which also knocked down 4-of-9 three-pointers.
The Salukis kept bashing the Skyhawks in the second half opening with two quick baskets in the first 40 seconds. Following jumpers by McDowell and Woodard, SIU built its biggest lead of the game to 74-47 when McDowell scored on a pair of free throws with 8:01 left to play. Tennessee-Martin then narrowed the margin to 74-51 on a jumper by Amy Watson before a power outage left a pitch black Skyhawk Arena.
Nearly one hour later, play resumed with the Dawgs ahead 74-51 with 6:50 on the clock. From that point on, UTM could only cut the deficit to as little as 15 points (82-67) with 28.1 seconds left as the Dawgs went on to win by that same 82-67 margin.
For the game, McDowell shot 8-of-11 from the field including 2-of-3 from behind the arc. In addition she dished out five assists, gatered three steals and knocked down 5-of-7 from the free throw line. Teague, on the other hand, shot 5-of-11 from the floor and a perfect 2-of-2 from the free throw line. Her 11 assists surpassed her previous career-high of 10 dishes done vs. Northern Iowa on Jan. 8 of last season. Lawary (9), Woodard (7), Jones (7) and Crutcher (7) also had solid games for the Dawgs.
Tennessee-Martin was led by Kelly Pendleton who netted 14 points.
SIU will close out its three-game road trip Sunday, Dec. 2 when the Salukis travel to Cookeville, Tenn., to take on Tennessee Tech at 2 p.m.
Notes: Junior forward Danielle Lawary returned after missing five to six weeks due to pneumonia. Lawary came off the bench to score seven consecutive points in just three minutes during the first half. Her seven points added to a total of nine for the game, Junior transfer Hillary Phillips, who missed her first start of the season, broke a 0-of-9 shooting drought from the field. In 17 minutes, Phillips scored six points and pulled down five rebounds, SIU's win marked both its third straight and seventh out of its last eight over the Skyhawks, After heavy rains in Tennessee throughout the day, a leak in the roof of Skyhawk Arena had to be stopped prior to tip off, Play was suspended for nearly an hour when a power outage left a pitch dark Skyhawk Arena. The game was resumed at 8:05 p.m., All but one player on the Salukis' roster scored, SIU outshot (44-43 percent) and out-rebounded (45-35) UTM.
