Southern Miss
Little Rock
UALR Hands Southern Miss 66-44 Loss
12/3/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Dec. 3, 2008
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - UALR's defense held true to form, holding the Southern Miss offense to a season-low 44 points, posting a 66-44 win over the visiting Lady Eagles Wednesday night.
Southern Miss falls to 3-4, while UALR improves to 5-1.
"UALR probably shot the ball as well as South Alabama did," head coach Joye Lee-McNelis said. "You know when a player who hasn't attempted a three all year, banks it in from top of the key, you are in for a long night."
Pauline Love led Southern Miss with 19 points and 11 rebounds with Stephanie Helgeson adding 11 points. UALR's Kim Sitzmann led all scorers with a game-high 28 points and Anshel Cooper chipped in 14.
"The thing that's most frustrating to me is our defense not defending the ball as closely as what I would like," McNelis said. "It was like we were there, but we weren't there. Our team effort was poor."
The game opened with Sitzmann and Love trading baskets. UALR then scored back-to-back baskets, giving the Trojans a 9-5 lead. Southern Miss fought back to tie the game 9-9 with buckets by Andrea Barber and Helgeson. Following another three by Sitzmann, the Lady Eagles outscored UALR, 6-2, to take a 15-14 lead at the 12:00 mark.
UALR then put together a 16-5 run that resulted in its first double-digit lead of the game, 32-22, behind solid three-point shooting. Southern Miss was able to get within eight points, 32-24, with 2:56 remaining, but UALR closed out the half with eight unanswered points to take a 40-24 lead into intermission.
"We came back in the second half and we fought hard," said McNelis. "I thought we played hard and cut the lead to 11. Then we turned the ball over and went about four minutes without scoring. You look at the things we are trying to accomplish. We have players with speed and athleticism, then we struggle trying to score the basketball. The biggest thing we are battling right now is our mental toughness."
Southern Miss opened the second half holding the Trojans to two points in the first 4:30, and cutting the lead to 11 points, but that was a close as the Lady Eagles would get.
The Trojan defense held Southern Miss to 35.8 percent shooting and forcing the Golden Eagles into 20 turnovers that resulted in 22 points.
Southern Miss returns to action, hosting William Carey for the first time since 1988.
