University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Southern Miss
East Carolina
Women's Basketball Falls to East Carolina, 68-63
2/15/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Feb. 15, 2008
GREENVILLE, N.C. - Redshirt sophomore Stephanie Helgeson scored a game-high 21 points and Pauline Love added her 16th double-double with 14 points and 14 rebounds, but it wasn't enough as East Carolina held off a late rally by the Lady Eagles for a 68-63 win.
"You have to give East Carolina a lot credit because they controlled this game from the tip," coach Joye Lee-McNelis said. "They're role players stepped up and made a difference in this game. We had to play a lot of zone because we could not guard them. We wanted to contain (LaCoya) Terry and (Jasmine) Young, and not let the role players hurt us. But, it was the role players who had the big night."
Southern Miss (14-10, 5-6) managed to out rebound the Lady Pirates, 44-42, but ECU scored 30 points off 24 Lady Eagle turnovers. Both team finished the game with the same number of field goals (27), but Southern Miss held an edge in 3-point field goals, 6-3. However, ECU connected on 11-of-18 from the line as compared to 3-of-8 by Southern Miss.
"I believe we made strides from the last time we played this team," McNelis said. "We had 17 offensive boards, but if we keep them off the offensive boards and we make our free throws we give ourselves a chance to win on the road."
East Carolina (11-13, 5-6) led by as many as 14 points on three different occasions, the last at the 5:04 mark, 59-45. Southern Miss then used a 14-4 run over the next 3:53 to get within four points, 63-59. The Lady Pirates were able to knock down 3-of-4 free throws by LaCoya Terry to keep the Lady Eagles just out of reach and Jasmine Young added a layup with eight seconds remaining to seal the win.
Terry led the way for ECU with 18 points, followed by Nicole Days with 16 points to go with 10 rebounds and Allison Spivey chipped in 10 points.
Southern Miss led by as many as four points in the first half, 22-18, with 5:16 remaining before the half, but ECU countered with a 12-2 run to close out the half. ECU led 30-24 at the half.
Southern Miss remains on the road and plays at Marshall, Sunday, in a 1 p.m. (CT) tip.
