Thursday, Feb. 9, 2012

CARBONDALE, Ill. -- The Drake women's basketball team dropped a 63-59 decision on the road at Southern Illinois on Thursday.

Drake falls to 11-12 on the season and 5-7 and league play with the defeat, while the Salukis improved their record to 7-16 on the year and 3-9 in Missouri Valley Conference.

Senior Rachael Hackbarth (Colgate, Wis.) collected her 16th double-double on the campaign tallying 27 points and a season-high 16 rebounds. The co-captain also had six steals on the night, which set a career high.

Junior Brittnye McSparron (Apple Valley, Minn.) added nine points, while sophomore Morgan Reid (Kansas City, Mo.) and redshirt freshman Carly Grenfell chipped in eight points apiece. Reid also collected seven rebounds and two steals.

The Bulldogs had a 30-21 lead at half thanks to 13 first-half points from Hackbarth. Drake shot 52.5 percent from the field in the initial stanza, but only 34.5 percent in the final 20 minutes.

The second half went the Salukis' way as they outscored Drake 42-29.  Terri Oliver, after scoring only three points in the first, tallied 14 in the second half to propel SIU to the lead it never relinquished.

The Salukis took the lead for good at the 13:29 mark with a layup by Alexus Patterson. Southern Illinois shot 59.1 percent from the field in the second half and were six-for-nine from three-point land.

“We had plenty of opportunities to win this game, and we just didn't capitalize on it,” commented head coach Amy Stephens.

Drake was able to cut the lead two points with 20 seconds remaining thanks to a Grenfell trey. However, Brooke LeMar nailed two free-throws with 17 ticks on the clock for the Salukis before Grenfell missed a three with 11 seconds remaining.

The Bulldogs were without the services of their second-leading scorer Kyndal Clark (Webb City, Mo.) in the second half due to illness. Clark recorded only three points in 13 minutes of play.

Leading SIU was freshman Cartaesha Macklin, the Valley's leading rookie scorer, who collected 18 points, had five steals and four dimes.

The Bulldogs will wrap up their two-game road swing in Evansville, Ind., against Evansville. Tipoff is set for 2 p.m., and the game will air on ESPN 3.