University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Southern Miss
East Carolina
Lady Eagles Get Past East Carolina, 68-60
1/31/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Jan. 31, 2009
HATTIESBURG, Miss. - Southern Miss held off a late rally by East Carolina in defeating the Lady Pirates, 68-60, Saturday afternoon in the PinkZoneTM game.
"What a great basketball game for the fans," Head Coach Joye Lee-McNelis said. "Both teams played well and it was touch-and-go throughout the game, basket for basket. It kept everybody on edge. Probably the greatest thing of all was our PinkZone. The money that we were able to raise for "Waiting for a Cure" goes to our local foundation here in the community. We are very excited about that opportunity to give back to our community."
Pauline Love led all scorers with 23 points and 12 rebounds. Andrea Barber added 17 points and six assists.
Southern Miss trailed only once in the game, 2-0, following a Tiahana Bowens basket just 23 seconds into the game. From there, Southern Miss outscored East Carolina 19-6 over seven minutes to take an 11-point lead, 19-8.
The Lady Pirates answered with eight consecutive points, spurred by two three-pointers by LaCoya Terry to cut the lead to three, 19-16.
The Lady Eagles eventually pushed their lead to 10 on two occasions with last coming at, 31-21, with 3:15 to go before the half. ECU was able to cut the lead to seven and Southern Miss led, 38-31 at intermission.
"We got great play out of Pauline scoring and rebounding the ball," McNelis said. "Once again Miss Consistent stepped up again to get another double-double and has continued to be a force for us. Andrea Barber, again, she has continued to be the player that has run this team and has made a huge difference as she's been able to play with any pain. I'm just a believer that as your point guard goes, so goes your team. I hold her to a very high standard because she engineers what goes on, on the floor."
Love scored the first four points to start the second half to give USM a double digit lead. Midway through the half, Southern Miss led by 13 points, 53-40. East Caroline then mounted a comeback over the next 10 minutes, outscoring USM 15-6, cutting the lead to just four points, 59-55, with 2:58 remaining. Barber then banked in a three-pointer as the shot clock was winding down to give the Lady Eagles a seven-point cushion.
"There were a lot of mismatches throughout the game," said McNelis. "I think East Carolina did a great job of taking advantage of those mismatches. And I think we did too. On the scoreboard, we were able to get a victory."
Southern Miss hit three-of-four free throws in the last 15 seconds to seal the win.
Terry led East Carolina (12-9, 3-5) with a team-high 18 points, followed by Allison Spivey and Jasmine Young with 12 points apiece.
At the conclusion of the game, the players' uniforms were auctioned off and Love's uniform went for a record $3,200, while Reed's and Helgeson's uniforms went for $700 and $500, respectively. The pink and white basketball also brought in $1,000. All proceeds go to the "Waiting for a Cure" Foundation, a local breast cancer survivor group that helps with expenses for medicine, mammograms, travel to and from treatment, just to name a few. The final count on the afternoon was $8,925.
The Lady Eagles return to action, Thursday, in a nationally televised game on CBS C against SMU. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. Admission to the game is $1 as the game has been designated the "Pack the House" game.
