Lady Eagles Defeat Samford, 68-60
12/3/2002 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
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Lady Eagles Defeat Samford, 68-60
La'Tasha Sumerall led Southern Miss with 15 points off the bench and Dana Jones grabbed 10 rebounds. Giovanni Price led all scorers with a game-high 24 points for Samford and Lindsay Harris added 13 points.
"We knew coming in that Samford was going to be a tough team that wasn't going to go away easily," Head Coach Rick Reeves said. "They run that Princeton offense; they have a lot of three-point shooters. I thought, too, that we were emotionally spent from Sunday. They wanted to get a lead and cruise, but at this level, you can't do that. You have to play hard every night."
Southern Miss quickly jumped out to a lead, 8-3, but Samford came roaring back behind Price with two consecutive three-pointers to tie the game at 11. Over the next 4:08, Southern Miss would out score Samford 13-3, taking a 10-point lead, 24-14, at the 10:26 mark in the half. Samford closed to within five, 25-20, before the Lady Eagles finished the half with an 8-2 run, taking a 33-22 lead into the half.
"Tasha did a real good job the first half," Reeves said. "Samford was playing from the primeter, taking a lot of three-point shots. I thought we played a little soft when we got the lead because we didn't want to foul. We need to do a better job of that. We wanted to pound the ball inside and take the ball to the basket. That helped us get to the free throw line."
Samford opened the second half outscoring Southern Miss, 7-3, cutting the lead to seven, 36-29, over 3:42. The Lady Eagles responded with eight unanswered points for a 44-29 lead at the 13:24 mark. Over the next eight minutes, both teams scored at will; however, Southern Miss quietly built a 15-point lead, 61-46, with 5:15 remaining.
Samford then went on a 14-4 run, cutting the lead to five, 65-60, with 1:45 remaining in the game. Senior Jessica Woods then forced a Samford turnover, deflecting a pass and then scored a much needed basket to give the Lady Eagles a seven-point advantage with 50 seconds remaining.
"Jess is like that car that has a lot of mileage on it," Reeves said. "You have to choose the time to drive it. Her knee was hurting a little bit, but we needed her in at that time.
"As a coach, I was a little afraid we would have that emotional letdown," Reeves continued. "Samford came in ready to play because we played Purdue so well. We were concerned about that. We have three games at home this week, its a busy week."
Southern Miss finished the game shooting only 41.2 percent from the field, but outrebounded Samford, 40-24, and was 20-of-25 from the line. The Lady Eagles had a season-low 14 turnovers.
Southern Miss continues its homestand, hosting its annual Hattiesburg Inn Classic, Dec. 6-7, with Mississippi Valley State, Birmingham Southern and UT-Martin in the tournament. Southern Miss takes on Mississippi Valley at 5:30 p.m., Friday, followed by Birmingham Southern and UT-Martin at 7:30. The consolation game is set for 2 p.m., Saturday, followed by the championship game at 4 p.m.