Southern Miss
Little Rock
Lady Eagle Basketball Falls to UALR 59-40
12/22/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Dec. 22, 2009
HATTIESBURG, Miss. - Chastity Reed led three UALR players in double figures with 17 points to power the Trojans to a 59-40 women's basketball victory over Southern Miss here Tuesday night at Reed Green Coliseum.
Asriel Rolfe added 15 points for the visitors, while Marian Kursh added 12. The Lady Eagles were led by Candace Rucker who poured in 11 points.
Southern Miss (4-7) lost for the third-straight time and was held to a season-low point total.
"You have to give Arkansas-Little Rock a tremendous amount of credit as they came into our house and they really took it to us," Southern Miss coach Joye Lee-McNelis said. "We are not going to win ball games if we give the ball to the opponent more times than we make a basket."
UALR contained Lady Eagle leading scorer Pauline Love to just six points, as she made just 3-of-6 from the floor and missed her only free throw opportunity.
"We have to get Pauline Love the basketball and (Chastity) Reed did a phenomenal job of taking her out of her game," McNelis said. "They did a nice job of bumping her and they crowded her every possession."
The Trojans (7-5) also took advantage of 17 Southern Miss first-half turnovers in which they turned into 15 points and also translated into a 50 percent shooting half (13-of-26). UALR also converted 4-of-8 from 3-point range over the first 20 minutes to give the Trojans a 32-19 advantage at intermission.
Southern Miss closed the gap in the second half to nine points on two occasions but could not get push the margin any closer as UALR kept a double-digit lead for most of the final 20 minutes.
The Lady Eagles did manage to work the ball inside during the contest as they tallied 24 points inside the paint and finished the contest hitting 16-of-39 attempts for 41 percent.
Still, the 26-8 advantage in points off turnovers for the Trojans proved to be a big difference in the contest. Southern Miss did win the battle of the boards 31-30.
The Lady Eagles return to action Dec. 30 at Alabama in a 5:30 p.m., contest.
- SouthernMiss.com -
