Southern Miss Lady Eagles Lose to Houston, 65-57
2/10/2002 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
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Southern Miss Lady Eagles Lose to Houston, 65-57
Southern Miss fell just a little short Sunday afternoon, losing to Houston 65-57. Southern Miss falls to 10-14 and 3-8, while Houston improves to 17-6, 7-3.
La'Tasha Sumerall led the Eagles with 20 points and Tierra Lassiter added 11 points. Sonja Brown pulled down 13 rebounds and blocked eight shots. Chandi Jones led Houston with 21 points, Ashley Cotton scored 12 and Shondra Bush chipped in 11.
"I thought our kids played real well today," Head Coach Rick Reeves said. "We competed hard today. We had a hard practice on Saturday and we talked about effort. I thought we had a great effort. We just have to learn to be consistent."
Both teams battled evenly throughout the first half, ending with a 30-30 tie at intermission. Houston scored 15 points off turnovers in the half and led by as many nine, 21-12, with 10:35 left. Southern Miss then went on 13-2 run to take a 24-23 lead at the 5:28 mark.
"This was a hard-fought game," Reeves said. "I thought we got a lot better as the game went on. It's disappointing to play this hard, this well on the road and not come back with a victory. I can take this though, because we got beat today, but Friday night we lost."
Houston opened the second half with an 11-2 run in the first 5:31. The Cougars led by as many as 13 on two occasions, 48-45, with 11:15, and 58-45, with 5:19 remaining. The Golden Eagles put together an 11-4 run to cut the lead to 62-57 with 26 seconds remaining. Houston sealed the win with 3-of-4 free throws in the closing seconds.
Southern Miss won the battle of the boards, 59-54. Both teams finished with 24 offensive rebounds. Southern Miss finished the game shooting 41.9 percent, while Houston shot 30.8 percent from the field. The difference came from the free throw line where Houston connected on 19-of-32 from the line and the Lady Eagles were 9-of-12.
Southern Miss returns home for its final three games of the regular season, beginning with Tulane, Feb. 16 at 7 p.m.