University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Southern Miss
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UTEP
Women's Basketball Team Falls to UTEP, 60-46
1/28/2007 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Jan. 28, 2007
EL PASO, Texas -- - Southern Miss did not get off to the best of starts with UTEP taking advantage of early turnovers in the first half and defeating the Lady Eagles 60-46, Sunday afternoon.
Southern Miss dropped to 11-10 on the year and 5-3 in Conference USA, while UTEP improved to 17-3 and 6-2 in the league.
Emer Foley came off the bench to lead Southern Miss with 16 points and a team-high nine rebounds. Kendra Reed and Anna Patterson scored eight points each.
Jareica Hughes and Kasia Krezel led UTEP with 17 points apiece and Izabela Piekarska added 12 points before fouling out of the game.
"We fought hard," Head Coach Joye Lee-McNelis said. "Our fight was there in the end and we were able to try and rally back. Defensively, we made some stops, but we couldn't convert those opportunities into points."
Southern Miss scored the first point of the game on a Liz Biland free throw, and from there, UTEP put its offense into high gear, jumping out to 9-2 lead and never looking back. Southern Miss fought back to cut the lead to seven, 15-8, but UTEP reeled off eight straight points, pushing its lead to 15 points, 23-8.
"You can not spot a team on the road and rally and come back," McNelis said. "We can't get 16-points down and come back on the road. You could probably do that at home, but not on the road.
"We played perhaps our worst game of the year from every aspect," said McNelis. "But you have to applaud the effort of Emer Foley and the way she played. She gave us a spark, but we didn't have anyone else step up and help her."
The Lady Eagles went a five-minute span with out scoring, until Rachael Manuel scored a basket at the 7:27 to end the drought. UTEP then closed out the half on a 15-8 run, taking a 38-18 lead into the half.
Southern Miss fought back in the second half, outscoring UTEP, 28-22, but it was too little too late. UTEP led by as many as 27-points, 48-21, at the 12:34 mark, before Southern Miss went on a 15-2 run to get within 12 points, 50-38, with 2:02 remaining.
Hughes then scored six of the last 10 points from the line in helping to seal the win. Anna Patterson hit back-to-back three-pointers, cutting the lead to 10 at the 1:30 mark, but that was as close as the Lady Eagles would get.
Southern Miss concludes its four-game road swing with a trip to Tulsa on Thursday, Feb. 1.
