Shockers v Southern Illinois (Friday, 7pm) and Evansville (Sunday, 2pm)

[flyingMoose]

The Shockers entertain the Salukis of Southern Illinois on Friday and the Purple Aces of Evansville on Sunday this weekend.

SIU return all five starters from last year and are one of four teams in the Valley with only one conference loss (4-1). They were a preseason pick for fourth and have an overall record of 11-6. The Salukis have an RPI of 114. Rishonda Napier, who has been Player of the Week once in the Valley, leads the offense with 15.3 ppg. She sinks the three-ball at a 40% clip. Dyana Pierre earlier this year joined the career 1000-points, 1000-rebounds club. She is a member of the Preseason All-Conference team and averages 13.7 ppg. Cartaesha Macklin at 12.8 ppg is another strong contributor to the offense.

The Shockers, still seeking their first conference win (0-6), have an overall record of 3-14. Their RPI has dropped to 313. Rangie at 14.9 ppg, and TaQuandra at 11.9 ppg remain the scoring threats for the Shocks.

Game notes from Southern Illinois are here. Streaming video is here. Live stats are here.

[1972Shocker]

I would not expect a win against SIU but it's not impossible. Shocks should beat Evansville but a loss is certainly possible.

SIU is perhaps the most athletic team in the Valley. They average 70.4 PPG (71.8 in MVC play). The Shocks average 51.8 PPG (46.8 in MVC Play). Shocks will need to play well above average on both ends of the floor to have any shot at beating SIU.

Evansville has one pretty good player in 5-11 Jr. G Sarah Dickey who averages 16.0 PPG. However they are not real big and Rangie could have a big game against the Aces. Evansville averages 56.0 PPG (54.0 in MVC Play) but their scoring defense is the worst in the Valley.

[flyingMoose]

Shocker game notes and game-day article from the Eagle

[1972Shocker]

Shocks up 20-9 with 8:00 minutes remaining in the 1st half. Combination of the Shocks playing pretty well and SIU sucking on both ends of the floor. Hard to believe this team is 4-1 in Valley play. They are not impressive at all to this point.

[Shox1979]

Lady Shox lead 37-18 at half (you read that right). Like 72 said, it's a combination of things. The lady shox are actually moving the ball. In past games it seemed whenever Rangie or Mike caught the ball a shot was going up. Tonight we aren't taking the first open look. We are working the ball for much better shots. And diamond Lockhart remembered how to play basketball and has 15 pts.
And southern Illinois looks terrible. They have missed more bunnies and tossed up more air balls than any team I've seen all year. Nothing I've seen makes me think they should have 4 wins on the season, let alone the valley.

[Shox1979]

Shox started big this game with Brittany and Rangie in the lineup. SIU starts a big lineup and that seemed to make some difference in SIU starting very slowly.

[1972Shocker]

Halftime: Shocks 37 - SIU 18

Jayr Francis banks in a 3 at the buzzer but the Shocks dominated the Salukis in the 1st half. Diamond Lockhart has 15 points on 6-7 from the field.

Part of that, at least so far, is SIU is not shooting the ball well but their defense has been awful. But some credit for that goes to the Shocks. They are playing decent defense, moving well on offense and knocking down shots.

SIU is going to need a major turnaround to get back in this game and so far they simply show no signs of that. You could see the Shocks confidence growing as the half progressed and right now they believe they are the better team (and it certainly looks like they are).

[1972Shocker]

And southern Illinois looks terrible. They have missed more bunnies and tossed up more air balls than any team I've seen all year. Nothing I've seen makes me think they should have 4 wins on the season, let alone the valley.

I agree. I have said all along that the Valley is not very good this year but SIU looked absolutely horrible and poorly coached. But again the Lady Shocks deserve some credit for that as well.

[Shox1979]

5 minutes into the 3rd and the lady shox without a point. The lead is now 37-31. SIU just knocked down their first 3 of the game and seem to be the more confident team right now.

[1972Shocker]

5 minutes into the 3rd and the lady shox without a point. The lead is now 37-31. SIU just knocked down their first 3 of the game and seem to be the more confident team right now.

SIU opened the 3rd quarter with a 13-0 run before the Shocks could get things settled down. I thought SIU made a good adjustment by pounding the ball inside to Pierre. Rangie now has 4 fouls.

Shocks still lead 43-35 at the end of the 3rd quarter. One possible advantage for the Shocks is that SIU's bigs are very poor free throw shooters. The Salukis are 2-8 from the line.

[Shox1979]

47-45 with 435 left. We got ourselves a ball game.

[Shox1979]

49-45 with 153 left. Shox ball. 37 points in the first half. 12 in 18 minutes of play in the second. This team remains a mystery. Even if they sneak out this win.

[Shox1979]

2 stoppages of play to review calls, a bunch of time outs, a lot of fouls later... 53-48 wsu with 32 left after Mike fouls a 3 point shooter for SIU. Let this thing end.

[1972Shocker]

Final: Shocks 57 - Salukis 48


The Shocks were good in the 1st half, not so much in the second half. SIU was good for about 5 minutes at the beginning of the 3rd quarter and not so much the other 35 minutes.

But a win is a win and this win in particular was badly needed.

SIU came into the game as the leading 3-point shooting team in the Valley according to the announcers. You certainly would not have guessed that. SIU's 3 starting guards (Macklin, Napier and Giebelhausen) were a combined 5-37 (13.5%) from the field including 1-19 (5.3%) from behind the arc. Neither team shot free throws very well. SIU was 5-11 (45.5%) and that was with Macklin knocking down 3 late in the game after being fouled on a 3-point attempt. The Shocks were 9-16 (56.3%) from the line. SIU has 2 decent inside players in Pierre and Nebo but got nothing from their guards tonight.

The Shocks still looking to put together a complete game. Only difference tonight is that they were able to ride a good 1st half to a win. Diamond Lockhart led the way for the Shocks with 19 points on 7-11 shooting and TaQuandra Mike added 14 although she was only 6-18 from the field. However, TaQuandra hit two big shots late in the game when both teams were struggling to score to give the Shocks some breathing room and force SIU to start fouling.

They have a good chance to make it 2 in a row against Evansville on Sunday although Evansville gave MSU a challenge tonight in Springfield losing 70-77 winning the last 3 quarters by 60-57.

A Shocker win on Sunday would move them out of last place 1/2 game ahead of Evansville and probably Bradley if they lose at Indiana State Sunday. Bradley lost at Illinois State tonight 49-54. Loyola lost convincingly at Indiana State 48-62.

Good night for Drake and UNI who were idle tonight with both SIU and Loyola losing as they are now tied for 1st at 5-1. UNI visits Drake in Sunday for the early lead in the regular season conference race.

[flyingMoose]

Evansville gave MSU a challenge tonight in Springfield losing 70-77

Kinda. This game was 72-52 with 3:39 to play.

I wonder if Southern Illinois was looking forward to Sunday a bit. We had stretches where we had never heard of low-post defense. Late, we did better and forced SIU to try to win with their guards. Our defense in the first half was outstanding and tweaked specifically for the Salukis. We face-guarded some players, did some other unique things. Even then, Southern got a few easy lay-ins.

I thought we did some things offensively in the first half that I had not seen before. We got some nice buckets with a pick-and-roll with the post rolling to the basket. We might have gotten a couple more if Brittany would learn to roll to the bucket. In the second half, we seemed to be doing more of the old sets. It may have been personnel issues - I can't figure that stuff out.

Obviously we had some issues in-bounding the ball in the last couple of minutes. I thought their press bothered us in the first half, and I was surprised not to see it more in the second half. Two for eight on free throws in crunch time - ouch!

Diamond got her 19 points on 11 shots. TaQuandra got her 14 points on 18 shots.

As mentioned, not a complete game, but at least we could see the possibilities.