Marquette Outlasts Southern Miss, 68-59
1/25/2002 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
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Marquette Outlasts Southern Miss, 68-59
Southern Miss (9-10, 2-4 in C-USA) had one other Lady Eagle score in double figures, Tierra Lassiter with 14 points. Rachel Klug led Marquette with 16 points, followed by Rashida Gales with 12. The seven three-pointers by Sumerall tied a Southern Miss single-game record for most threes made in a game.
"I am disappointed that we didn't do a better job keeping Marquette off the offensive boards," Head Coach Rick Reeves said. "We missed Lana Lewis tonight, because we didn't have that other shooter out there. I have to give Marquette credit. They are a well-coached team, because Terri Mitchell does a great job of coaching."
Southern Miss led 55-54, with 7:23 remaining in the game, when Marquette went on a 6-0 run to take a 60-55 lead over two minutes. Southern Miss went 4:49 without a basket, but trailed by only three points, 60-57. Marquette sealed the win, hitting 8-of-8 free throws in the last 1:47.
"We had several opportunities to win this game," Reeves said. "We just made too many mental mistakes. We needed someone else beside LaTasha to step up for us. Their zone hurt us, because they were packing it in. We didn't get the inside play that we needed."
Southern Miss scored only 18 points in the paint, while Marquette had 34. Sonja Brown, Victoria Mason, Dana Jones and Anna Udicova scored only 12 points combined. Southern Miss finished the game shooting 39 percent and went to the free throw line only nine times and made four.
Marquette finished the game shooting 37 percent from the field, but hit 77 percent from the free throw line on 17-of-22. Marquette also outrebounded Southern Miss 45-39, with 17 coming on the offensive end.
"I felt real good shooting tonight," Sumerall said. "We didn't do some of the things we needed to do to win, and that's disappointing. We have to do a better job of blocking out and rebounding and not give up so many offensive rebounds."
Southern Miss returns to action on Sunday, at noon, against DePaul.