Southern Miss
Elon
Women's Basketball Team Loses Heartbreaker to Elon, 59-57
12/4/2005 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
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Dec. 4, 2005
RALEIGH, N.C. -- - Southern Miss' comeback fell just short, losing a heart breaker when Elon's Kitara McMoore scored on an offensive tip-in with .1 seconds remaining, giving Elon a 59-57 win over the Lady Eagles in the consolation game at the NC State Tournament Sunday afternoon.
Southern Miss (2-5) trailed by five points, 57-52, with 1:04 remaining in the game. Southern Miss scored five unanswered points, tying the game at 57-57 with 33 seconds to go in the game after Reed connected on the front end of a 1-and-1 free throw.
On Elon's next possession, the Golden Eagles forced the Phoenix into a turnover with five seconds remaining, but Southern Miss made a bad pass trying inbounding the ball, giving the ball back to Elon underneath its own basket. Nicole Allison got off a shot and McMoore tipped in the rebound for the win.
"Our players fought hard today in making the comeback," Head Coach Joye Lee-McNelis said. "We were down five points with a minute to play. A lot of teams believe that a game is over at that point, but we stepped up and caused some problems with them (Elon) trying to inbound the ball. We got some quick steals and scored the easy baskets."
Ashley Boehnel led all scorers with 18 points, followed by Liz Biland with 12 and Kendra Reed added 10. Robyn Shipley led Elon (3-3) with 12 points, with McMoore adding a double-double with 10 points and 15 rebounds. Nikko King also scored 10 points.
Southern Miss led 36-32 at the half. Both team finished the half shooting 50 percent from the field, but Elon held the rebounding edge, 20-10. Boehnel scored 14 of her 18 points in the first half as Biland scored 10 of her 12 points.
Southern Miss pushed its halftime lead to eight points, 40-32, before Elon went on a 16-2 run over 5:20, taking a 48-42 lead with 12:45 remaining. Elon led by as many as nine points on two occasions with the last coming at the 6:32 mark, 54-45.
"I believe what happened in the final seconds of the game summarized what happened throughout the game," McNelis said. "We had a defensive break down by us not switching on screens and then we didn't box out after the shot."
The Lady Eagles then used a 12-3 run in over 4:11 to tie the game. Southern Miss finished the game shooting 37.3 percent while Elon shot 49.1 percent. The Phoenix out rebounded the Lady Eagles, 47-22. Southern Miss scored 21 points off 29 Elon turnovers and six of those turnovers came in the last four minutes.
NC State defeated Liberty in the championship game, 81-66. Boehnel received all-tournament honors for her performance. Other members included McMoore of Elon, Billie McDowell and Tiffany Stansbury of NC State, Moriah Frazee and Megan Frazee of Liberty. Megan Frazee was named the tournament's MVP.
Southern Miss returns home to host instate rival Jackson State, Dec. 9, in a 7 p.m., tip.
