CARBONDALE, Ill. - It wasn't always pretty inside SIU Arena on Saturday afternoon, but the Indiana State women's basketball team made it two road victories in a row with a 48-42 win over Southern Illinois in front of 820 fans in Carbondale, Ill. The victory moves the Sycamores to 11-9 overall and 5-4 in the Missouri Valley Conference, while the Salukis fall to 2-18, 0-9 MVC.

For the second straight game, the Sycamores fell behind 8-0 on the road, as the Salukis scored the game's first eight points over the opening three minutes of action. Freshman Teri Oliver scored all eight for the Salukis, coming on a pair of 3-pointers and two free-throws.

ISU battled back to take a brief lead with 10:37 remaining in the half, using a pair of free-throws from sophomore Taylor Whitley to take an 11-10 lead. The Sycamores went ice cold after that, scoring just three points over the remainder of the half, on a jumper by Whitley with four minutes left and a free-throw from freshman Anna Munn with one second remaining on the clock.

The Salukis took a 26-14 lead into the locker room, on the strength of a 16-3 run over the final 10 minutes of the half. ISU shot just 17.2% from the field (5-for-29) in the first half, including 1-for-12 (8.3%) from beyond the three-point line and just 3-for-9 from the charity stripe.

Indiana State began their comeback with an 8-0 run to start the second half, with all eight points coming from junior Shannon Thomas to cut the SIU lead to 26-22 with 16:03 remaining. After the Salukis pushed their lead back to nine points with a layup and a 3-pointer, ISU scored the game's next 11 points to take their first lead of the second-half, at 33-31 with 8:04 left to play on an old-fashioned three-point play from senior Kelsie Cooley.

The Sycamores led for the majority of what was left in Saturday's contest, with SIU briefly taking the lead at 39-38 on a steal by Oliver and a layup by redshirt freshman Renee Reed with 4:15 left to play. ISU regained the lead for good when junior Brittany Schoen knocked down a six-foot jumper off an out-of-bounds play with 2:54 remaining. The jumper was Schoen's only basket of the game.

Just as they did against Evansville, Indiana State knocked down their free-throws at the end of the game to secure the victory, going 6-for-8 at the line in the game's final 33 seconds to pull out the win.

Munn and Cooley tied for the team-high in points, with both Sycamores going for 13. Thomas added her sixth double-double of the season, with 10 points and 12 rebounds, while Whitley tossed in nine. Despite not scoring, redshirt freshman Andrea Rademacher grabbed six rebounds in 14 minutes off the ISU bench to keep the Sycamores within striking distance in the first half.

The Sycamores shot just 26.8% (15-for-56) from the field on Saturday, including just 2-for-16 (12.5%) from beyond the arc. ISU also struggled at the charity stripe for the game, knocking down 16 of their 26 shots. The Salukis also had trouble finding their shot, going 14-for-62 (22.6%) from the field and 8-for-30 from three-point range.

Indiana State will look to make it three in a row on the road when they travel to Illinois State next Saturday, Feb. 5. The Sycamores topped the Redbirds 74-55 when the teams met in Terre Haute on Jan. 8, behind 21 points and 11 rebounds from Thomas.