Southern Miss Holds On To Defeat Louisville 57-54
2/1/2002 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
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Southern Miss Holds On To Defeat Louisville 57-54
Louisville's last-gasp shot missed, leaving the Eagles with their third conference victory with five losses and dropping Louisville to 5-3 in the league. Southern Miss improved to 10-11 overall, and Louisville dropped to 13-8.
Victoria Mason came off the bench to score 12 points, and La'Tasha Sumerall added 11 points. Louisville's LaKisha Hoffman led all scorers with 18 points and 16 rebounds, and Sara Nord chipped in 13 points.
"I closed my eyes and prayed on that last shot," Head Coach Rick Reeves. "We really wanted to take away the three-point shot, and I thought our guards played really well in that area. I thought the kids played excellent, but what was the key in our game was our post players. They had to play their folks without any help. I thought they really stepped up, because they had to play one-on-one basketball against people getting the ball four feet from the basket."
Southern Miss opened the second half with a 9-2 run to take the lead at 34-33 at the 15:19 mark. Louisville quickly regained the lead on four unanswered points. The two teams swapped the lead several times, before Southern Miss took the lead for good on a Lewis three-pointer with 9:07 remaining. The Lady Eagles led by as many as six points on two occasions and limited Louisville to just two points in the final 3:31 of the game.
"Louisville is a very good defensive team, and I thought kids did a great job as far as handling the press," Reeves said. "Against DePaul, we played well for one half. Tonight, we had that effort for two halves."
Louisville won the rebound battle, 54-46, and Southern Miss won the game, despite shooting just .263 (15-57). The Lady Eagles made six three-pointers to only one (of 12) for Louisville. Louisville also made only 5-of-12 free throws, while Southern Miss was 21-of-30 from the line.
Southern Miss returns to action Sunday, hosting Cincinnati at 2:30 p.m.