CARBONDALE - Eighteen hours after defeating Division II Quincy, 67-59, at SIU Arena, Southern Illinois University women's basketball coach Missy Tiber was back at the podium Monday during SIU's Media Day at Stadium Grille.

"The process is moving along," Tiber said. "We're really trying to dedicate time to get this fast-break offense into place and we're being faced with some struggles."

The first-year coach has nine new faces, a new offense and a new way of attacking some of the problems SIU has had over the last two years. The Salukis were scheduled to spend Monday afternoon breaking down the film from Sunday's game, a contest that saw SIU commit 25 turnovers and get outrebounded 18-12 on the offensive glass.

"(Sunday) night we were able to see some of those struggles," Tiber said. "A lot of it is the fact that we do not have a true point guard at this time."

The player expected to fill that position, freshman point guard Katerina Garcia, is out with a leg injury for the foreseeable future and Tiber named senior transfer, and former Division II All-American, Stephany Neptune as the starter for that position Monday.

"It's been fun," Neptune said of the transition to SIU. "Coming from a D-II school to a D-I school instead of two coaches, I have five."

Tiber revealed a couple other tidbits during her time in front of the media, including the fact that fifth-year senior Katie Wagner may have earned herself a starter's spot with her play in Sunday's game.

"That's what we're pondering right now," Tiber said. "She gives us an aspect that a lot of kids aren't willing to do, which is to go in there and do all of the dirty work.

"We're battling back and forth about one of our starting positions and she's definitely in the mix for that."

In her first official basketball game in four years, the former SIU softball player from Mount Vernon finished with 12 points and five rebounds while playing 22 minutes. She scored five straight points in the second half, enabling the Salukis to open up a 13-point lead on the Lady Hawks.

"She talked about how that was the greatest day in her life in getting to compete (Sunday) on the basketball court," Tiber said.

As for the rest of the Salukis, correcting Sunday's mistakes and making better decisions on shot selection were two issues to work on heading into Saturday's exhibition contest with Division III runner-up Washington (Mo.) University.

"Part of me felt like I needed to make something happen because I'm supposed to be a leader and score," said junior forward Katrina Swingler, who finished with nine points on 3-of-12 shooting with one free throw. "I was pushing it too much and needed to let it come to me."

Tipoff is scheduled for 6:05 p.m. at SIU Arena.

pete.spitler@thesouthern.com /618-351-5073