Southern Miss Defeats DePaul, 62-53
2/7/2003 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
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Southern Miss Defeats DePaul, 62-53
Southern Miss evened its record at 10-10 and 3-4 in league play, while DePaul dropped to 16-7 and 5-3. Dana Jones added 12 points and eight rebounds. Charlene Smith led DePaul with 17 points and Ashley Luke scored 15 for the Blue Demons.
"I am so proud of our kids," Head Coach Rick Reeves said. "I thought this was the first game where we really stuck to our game plan throughout. We challenged our post players because they had to go out and guard guards tonight. They (DePaul) likes to play four guards and one post."
Both teams traded baskets through the first three minutes of the game, when Southern Miss scored four unanswered points, taking a five-point lead, 10-5. DePaul came roaring back and outscored the Lady Eagles 14-8 over a 12 minute span to take a 19-18 lead with 2:59 to go before the half. The half ended in a 24-24 tie when Charlene Smith scored a basket with eight seconds remaining before the half.
"I thought we did a good job of Khara Smith, whose averaging 19 points in conference play," Reeves said. "I have to give the kids credit, they stuck with out game plan throughout the hold game. We wanted to control the tempo. We knew DePaul would be quicker, so we decided to slow it down and work the ball. I thought the free throws were critical. We hit some big free throws in the last minute to help seal this win."
Both teams played evenly through the first two minutes, before the Lady Eagles used an 8-3 run for a 38-31 lead with 13:08 remaining in the game. Southern Miss would eventually build as much as an 11-point lead on two occasions, 46-35, at the 8:45 mark and 51-40 at the 6:49 mark. DePaul began to chip away at the Lady Eagle lead, and cutting the lead to one-point, 52-51 with 1:03 remaining in the game. Story then went to work from the free throw line, connecting on four consecutive free throws in 11 seconds. Smith scored the Blue Demon's last basket with 39 seconds remaining. The Golden Eagles closed out the half, hitting four-of-six free throws in the last 26 seconds.
Southern Miss will host Marquette, Sunday, in a 2:30 tip-off in Green Coliseum.