Lady Eagles Top Tulsa, 72-43, In Basketball Action
2/8/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Feb. 8, 2009
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HATTIESBURG, Miss. - The first two minutes of the game featured a combined for seven turnovers and three missed shots the two teams. Then, Southern Miss (16-7, 9-1) reeled off the next seven points and never looked back in posting a 72-43 win over Tulsa Sunday afternoon.
The win was the first against Tulsa in six tries.
"Today's game was a game where we reached back and pulled out our full defense to get a victory," McNelis said. "Our full court defense was the key to our success, forcing them into 33 turnovers. I think that is the first game we were able to dig out teeth in somebody and get a solid win. In the past when we have gotten big leads, we have allowed teams to get back into the game. Today was the first time we did not allow that to happen."
The Lady Eagles eventually ran out to a 21-point lead in the first half behind the offensive output of Pauline Love and Tanesha Washington, as the two combined for 21 first half points. However, Tulsa used a 13-5 run over five minutes to cut the lead to 13 on two occasions with the last at 35-22 with 2:00 to go before the half. Southern Miss led 39-24 at the half.
Love finished the game with a team-high 16 points and Washington added 13. All 14 players saw at least four minutes of action and all but three contributed to the scoring effort. Chanel Johnson led Tulsa (6-16, 2-8) with 11 points and Kara Vaughn added 10 for the visitors.
The Lady Eagles opened the second half hitting on all cylinders and pushing their lead to 21 points, 51-30, midway thru the half. Tulsa got the score under 20 only once (51-32) after Vaughn connected on two free throws with 10:06 remaining in the game.
Southern Miss forced Tulsa into 33 turnovers and scored 24 points from the miscues, but Tulsa came away with 19 offensive rebounds for 21 second chance points. The Lady Eagle bench contributed 33 points. Southern Miss edged Tulsa in the rebound department, 44-42, and every player who played had at least one rebound.
The Lady Eagles finished the game shooting 45 percent, while hold the Golden Hurricane to 26.2 percent including 16.1 percent the second half.
"This was a good team win and everybody got to get in on the action," said McNelis. "Now, we have to turn our focus on next week's games. It's going to be a tough weekend because East Carolina is 9-1 in at home and Marshall will have a good crowd on hand for the ESPN2 game."
Southern Miss begins a four-game road swing, beginning at East Carolina, Feb. 13, then on to Marshall (Feb. 15) for a nationally televised game on ESPN2.