Southern Miss
Marshall
Southern Miss Rolls To 82-44 Victory Over Marshall
2/24/2007 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Feb. 24, 2007
HATTIESBURG, Miss. -- -
 Kristin Chaney topped the 200-mark in assists with 11  | |
The Lady Eagles will have to wait for pairings for the tournament later on tonight.
Every player played and every player scored, with four players scoring in double figures led by Lauren Pittman with a game and season-high 18 points, Kendra Reed scored 17, Amber Eugene had 16 and Anna Patterson chipped in 11 points. Alix Barnette led Marshall with 12 points.
"I am proud of the way we were able to make the come back, after the way we played so poorly on Thursday," Head Coach Joye Lee-McNelis said. "What a great team performance that we had from every aspect. We played in an attack mentality and an attack mode and it really got a lot of energy going."
Pittman put the Lady Eagles on the scoreboard first, connecting on a jumper from the baseline. Marshall quickly answered with a basket by Meagan Samis. Pittman responded with another jumper, before Marshall got four straight free throws from Modupe Ishola, giving the Herd a two-point advantage.
Southern Miss then scored seven straight points for an 11-6 lead. Marshall quickly closed the gap to one, 11-10, on buckets from Meg Withrow and Kendra King. The Lady Eagles used a 15-2 run over 2:34 to take a 16-point lead, 26-12, with just under eight minutes before the half. Southern Miss led 33-19 at the half.
"What a fabulous night for our senior to go out on," McNelis said. "This was a great send off for her with a good win like this one."
Eugene sparked a 16-0 run to start the second half, pushing the Golden Eagle lead to 30, 49-19, at the 15:02 mark. Eugene actually scored the first seven points of the run.
"This was the best performances we've had coming out of half time," said McNelis. "I attribute that to our senior Kristin Chaney. She was in the locker room getting her teammates motivated and stressing how important it was going out and getting off to a good start."
Marshall went the first 5:14 without scoring. Withrow ended the drought with a basket at the 14:46 mark. Southern Miss was able to maintain the 30-point lead for the remainder of the game.
We made some defensive changes since the last time we played Marshall," said McNelis. "At their place, they were off to the races. We worked a lot on our transition defense. We wanted to deny ball reversal. We did not want to let them to make the reversal and get doubled down on Ishola. Last time, we were so concerned about her, we sagged a lot and this time we wanted to pressure the basketball."
Southern Miss finished the game shooting 49.3 percent from the field, while Marshall shot 31.1 percent. The Lady Eagles held the rebounding edge, 40-32. Southern Miss scored 26 points off 23 Marshall turnovers, while the Lady Eagles committed a season-low eight turnovers for the game.
Both teams return to action in the 2007 Women's Basketball Championship presented by Aéropostale, Mar. 1-4, in Tulsa, Okla.
