Lady Eagles Snap a Three-Game Losing Streak

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Lady Eagles Snap a Three-Game Losing Streak

Dianca Jones poured in a career-high 24 points

? Sophomore guard Dianca Jones and freshman Shannon Stueber combined for 45 of Southern Miss? 74 points, leading the Lady Eagles to a 74-65 victory over Southeastern Louisiana in nonconference action Monday night in Reed Green Coliseum. With the win, the Lady Eagles snapped a three-game losing streak.

Jones scored a career-high 24 points, including 16 in the first half. Stueber tallied 21 points and Deondra Carter chipped in 13 points. Brooke Necaise, Jenny Brown and Dacia McGowan scored 14 points a piece for the Lady Lions.

?I?d like to say hats off to my team because they cut their turnovers in half,? Head Coach Joye Lee-McNelis said. ?That?s the biggest difference in this game. When you look at the stats sheet, they (Southeastern) shot 50 percent from the three-point line, 40 percent from the floor and they out rebounded us by 10. Most of the time, you win that game. The biggest difference is that we took care of the basketball.?

Southern Miss opened the game with a 17-5 run, with Jones scoring eight of the points. Southeastern then put together an 18-12 run, cutting the lead to six points, 29-23, with just over four minutes remaining in the half. The Lady Eagles closed out the half with an 8-4 run and led 37-27 at the half.

Southern Miss finished the first half shooting 51.5 percent from the field and had only six turnovers.

?I thought we played with a tremendous amount of intensity early,? McNelis said. ?I think Dianca Jones got us going early with some steals and easy buckets.?

Southern Miss led by 10 points with 13:27 remaining in the game, when Southeastern scored nine unanswered points to cut the lead to one, 49-48. The Lady Lions eventually tied the game at 51-51 when Brown hit the first of three, three-pointers.

?Coach talked about what you get when you get steals,? Jones said. ?You get opportunities and those opportunities lead to easy baskets. I just took advantage of that and played within my range. There are times I tend to get a little wild, but tonight I stayed within my box.?

Southeastern kept battling and eventually took its first lead of the game, 57-55, on a three by Brown with 6:44 remaining. Southeastern built a four-point, 61-57, when Brown hit her third three within six minutes.

?First, let me say that Southeastern Louisiana can shoot the basketball,? McNelis said. ?I wouldn?t want to zone them very much. We didn?t do a good job of defending their on the ball screens and that allowed them to get some good looks with that. You have to give them a lot of credit because they knocked down the threes when they had to.?

Southern Miss regrouped and out scored Southeastern 5-1 to tie the game at 62-62 with 2:13 remaining. Following a Southeastern free throw, the Lady Eagles then scored six straight points to take the lead for good, 68-63.

?Southeastern came after us in the second half,? said McNelis. ?In the past we have folded. Tonight we struggled for about five minutes even though we continued to play hard. We didn?t make smart decisions on what we needed to do.?

Southern Miss will not have long to celebrate because the Lady Eagles open Conference USA play against TCU on Friday at 7 p.m.

Lady Eagles Snap a Three-Game Losing Streak

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