Southern Miss
Southeast Missouri
Women's Basketball Falls at Southeast Missouri State, 73-63
11/16/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Nov. 16, 2009
CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. - Southeast Missouri State held Southern Miss to 37.9 percent shooting from the field for the game, including a dismal 29.6 percent in the first half to defeat the Lady Eagles, 73-63.
Pauline Love collected a double-double with 24 points and 10 rebounds and Candace Rucker scored 12 points.
"We did not get off to a very good start tonight," Coach Joye Lee-McNelis said. "We were lost offensively and defensively. They did a great job and I give them tremendous credit. Coach (John) Ishee's team played well. We didn't do the things we talked about as our big three. The first was we didn't communicate. The second was, we struggled defensively and third was rebounding margin. We didn't play well as a team tonight and it showed."
SEMO raced out to a 7-0 lead and held Southern Miss scoreless for the first 5:05. The Lady Eagles finally got on the scoreboard when Lauren Pittman connected on two free throws at the 14:54 mark. Southern Miss continued to struggle from the field, shooting a dismal 12.5 percent through the second media timeout. But by the third media timeout of the half, USM had improved its field goal percentage to 25 percent.
The Redhawks led by as many 12 points with 4:59 remaining in the half, but Southern Miss used an 8-0 run to cut the lead to just four, 28-24, just under a minute. SEMO led 31-26 at the half.
Out of intermission, the Lady Eagles cut the lead to three, 31-28, on a basket by Tanesha Washington. Then, SEMO ran off seven unanswered points to give the Redhawks a double digit lead, 38-28. Over the next three minutes, Southern Miss found themselves down by as many as 16, 48-32.
For the next 10 minutes, SEMO maintained a double-digit lead before Southern Miss made one last run sparked by back-to-back baskets by Rucker as USM scored nine straight points, capped off with back-to-back baskets by Love to get within five, 68-63, with 23 seconds remaining. SEMO closed out the game on 5-of-6 free throws.
Southern Miss hits the road again, this time, traveling to Ann Arbor to face the University of Michigan on Thursday at 6 p.m.
