Southern Miss
Rice
Women's Basketball Falls To Rice, 77-64
1/6/2006 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Jan. 6, 2006
HOUSTON, Texas - Rice used a 11-0 run to start the second half in defeating Southern Miss in Conference USA women's basketball action on Friday night, 77-64.
Southern Miss dropped to 4-9 and 1-1 in C-USA, while Rice, winning its conference opener, improved to 5-7 and 1-0.
"I thought we did a great job of taking their inside players out of the game," Head Coach Joye Lee-McNelis said. "We went to a smaller line and they couldn't guard us. I believed we did a good job of taking them out of their inside game."
At the same time, we didn't do a good job of stopping the three," McNelis continued. "We got frustrated mentally because we weren't able to defend the three. I told them we had to grow up in a hurry." Southern Miss opened the game on a 5-0 run, before Rice responded with a 7-0 run to take a 7-6 advantage with 16:54 to play in the first half. Southern Miss regained the lead following a 7-2 run behind back-to-back baskets by Reed, giving Southern Miss a 12-9 lead at the 14:24 mark. The lead changed five times over the next three minutes.
"The good thing about tonight is that we never quit," said McNelis. "We played to the very end. We were able to use our zone defense as much because they were hitting from the outside. We had to get away from our game plan a little bit. I was proud of our effort."
Rice then used an 11-2 run to take a 30-22 lead. The Lady Eagles cut the lead to four, 30-26, before Rice closed out the half on an 8-4 run for a 38-30 halftime lead.
Rice opened the second half, scoring 11 straight points before Southern Miss scored its first two points on a layup by Reed with 16:39 remaining. The Owls led by as many as 22 points on three occasions, with the last coming at 60-38 with 11:18 remaining in the game.
Southern Miss did not go quietly. Southern Miss scored eight unanswered points, cutting the lead to 14, 60-46.
Amber Eugene finished with her first career double-double with a team-high 17 points and 10 rebounds, while Ashley Harrell scored 14 points off the bench and Reed 13 points. Kristin Chaney and Kelsey Gurganus added four assists each.
Krystal Frazier had a game-high 25 points for Rice, scoring 17 in the first half. Lauren Neaves added a double-double with 11 points and 11 rebounds and Kadi Riverin chipped in 10 points and handed out eight assists.
Southern Miss continues Conference USA action, playing at Houston on Sunday in a 2 p.m., game time.
