Southern Miss
UCF
UCF Knocks Off Lady Eagles, 65-59, In Conference Opener
1/3/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Jan. 3, 2009
ORLANDO, Fla. - UCF Knights connected on 8-of-8 from the free throw line in the last 1:02 of the game in defeating Southern Miss, 65-59, in the conference opener for both teams.
Pauline Love led all scorers with a game-high 22 points and 13 rebounds and Andrea Barber added 13 points. UCF (3-11, 1-0) placed four players in double figures led by Emma Cannon with 18 points, followed by Angelica Mealing with 13, Aisha Patrick had 12 and Chelsie Wiley chipped in 12.
"You have to applaud UCF," Coach Joye Lee-McNelis. "I thought they executed an excellent game plan, and made two things happen that was very critical, they rebounded the basketball and they forced us into turnovers. That was the difference in the game."
Southern Miss (7-7, 0-1) ended the first half using a 7-2 run to take a 30-29 lead into halftime.
"At times we played very well," said McNelis. "Early in the first half our transition game was good, we got some easy buckets in transition. Again, we turned the ball over and as we turned the ball over, we did not get back in transition and we gave up some layups. When you turn the ball over 24 times and they take more shots than you do, you not going to be very successful with that kind of performance."
The Knights started the second half, scoring the first seven points to take a lead that they would never relinquish. However, the Lady Eagles managed to tie the game, 43-43, on a jumper by Love at the 11:35 mark in the game, but UCF answered with baskets from Cannon and D'Nay Daniels to push the lead to four, 47-43.
UCF led by as many as six points just under six minutes remaining in the game. The Lady Eagles scored five straight points to cut the lead to one, 53-52, at the 4:37 mark, but over the next four minutes, UCF outscored Southern Miss, 8-4, and held on to a 61-56 lead. UCF held on by hitting the last four free throws in the last 17 seconds.
UCF snapped a 12-game losing streak against Southern Miss. The Knights scored 22 points off 24 Southern Miss turnovers. The Lady Eagles finished the game shooting 41.98 percent from the field and held the rebounding edge, 43-39.
"I'm disappointed in the overall effort of some individual players," McNelis said. "I don't think we got the effort that was necessary for us to be able to win on the road. UCF is a much improved team and they have very solid players. They have two key players and we did a great job on Wiley in the first half, but we couldn't keep Cannon, who is a rebounding machine, off the glass. Cannon is probably one of the better rebounders we will face all year."
Southern Miss returns to action when the Lady Eagles travel to UAB (Jan. 8) and Memphis (Jan. 10).
