Southern Miss Routes Centenary, 97-44
12/30/2002 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
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Southern Miss Routes Centenary, 97-44
HATTIESBURG, Miss. - Southern Miss placed five players in double-digit scoring en route to a 97-44 victory over Centenary Monday night, closing out the 2002 portion of its schedule. Southern Miss snapped a two-game losing streak in the process and improved to 7-5, while Centenary dropped to 2-9.
Southern Miss' La'Tasha Sumerall led all scorers with a game-high 21 points, followed by Dana Jones with 14, Lotte Hulshof and Tierra Lassiter chipped in 11 and Sonja Brown added 10 points. Julie Danieles led Centenary with 11 points.
"I thought the team came out tonight and played like a very good basketball team," Head Coach Rick Reeves said. "We had the opportunity to play everyone and everyone contributed to this win. They (Centenary) played a matchup zone and I thought our kids did a great job of executing the offense, even though we didn't prepare for that type of defense. We wanted to focus on not turning the ball over in the second half."
Southern Miss opened the game scoring the first 12 points and never looked back. The Lady Eagles shot a blistering 57.6 percent from the field including 4-of-8 from three-point range. Nine different players scored two or more points in the first, with Sumerall leading the way with 11.
The Lady Eagles opened the second half with 18-6 run with four different players adding the scoring column. Freshman Hulshof scored all of her 11 points in the second half on 3-of-4 from the field, including 2-of-3 from beyond the arc and perfect 3-of-3 from the line.
Southern Miss held a big rebounding edge, 44-19. The Lady Eagles finished the game shooting 52.9 percent from the field, including 57.9 percent from three-point range and 87.5 percent from the line. The 11-made three-pointers were the most since nine treys against Marquette, Jan. 25, 2002. Southern Miss also forced Centenary into 30 turnovers with 17 steals on the season. The last time a Lady Eagle team scored 90-plus was Dec. 10, 2000, against Grambling State (91-78).
Southern Miss travels to New Orleans, Jan. 6, for a game against UNO. Tipoff time is set for 8 p.m.