Southern Miss
Marshall
Southern Miss Drops a Heart-breaker to Marshall, 58-56
1/10/2010 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Jan. 10, 2010
HUNTINGTON, W. Va. -- Southern Miss mustered only two points in the final five minutes and was unable to come up with a field goal as the Lady Eagles dropped a heartbreaker to Marshall, 58-56, in a nationally-televised game Sunday.
"This was a tough loss," Coach Joye Lee-McNelis said. "There has been a lot of improvement in this ball team, but to very honest, I'm disappointed in the outcome because we did do so many good things. But the bottom line is, when you don't keep bodies off the glass and you give up 20 points off offensive rebounds, you're not going to win many games. And then if you can't score a basket in the final five minutes of the game, you're not going to win either."
Freshman Kassietta Brown came off the bench to lead the way for Southern Miss with game-high 15 points with Pauline Love adding her ninth double-double of the season with 13 points and 13 rebounds and Candace Rucker also had 13 points.
"We just go to continue to make strides," said McNelis. "We had some players to that played well for us. Kassietta "Dutchess" Brown continues to grow up right in front of our eyes. She is making a lot of things happen. It's not just scoring, it's not just defense, but it's all across the board with her doing a little bit of everything. That's huge for us."
The teams battled back and forth through the first 10 minutes of the second half. Neither team led by more than three points during that span as there were five ties and three lead changes.
Marshall trailed by 48-46 when Erica Woods converted a three-point play then, added a basket with 8:26 to go to give Marshall a 51-48 lead. The Lady Eagles got back-to-back baskets from Brown and Love to regain the lead. The lead went back-and-forth for the next three minutes. With Marshall leading, 55-54, Love had an opportunity to put Southern Miss back ahead, but missed two free throws.
"I think we put a lot of pressure on our defense," McNelis said. "Our defensive game plan was executed, but Gray stepped up and hit two big shots. Our team put a lot of pressure defensively on us. Even though in that final five minutes we made defensive stops, the only time they scored was on offensive rebounds and stick-backs."
After trading turnovers, Raechele Gray came up with a big three-pointer to give the Herd a four-point advantage, 58-54, with 2:49 remaining. Brown came up with a steal and was fouled with 40 seconds remaining, but made only one of two to get with three, 58-55. On Marshall's last possession, the Herd ran the clock down but couldn't score and Rucker secured the rebound was fouled with only two seconds to go. Rucker made the first and missed the second off the back of the rim in hopes of getting a tip out for a last shot, but Woods grabbed the loose ball to seal the win.
Tynikki Crook led Marshall with a team-high 14 points to go with 11 rebounds and Woods chipped in 11 points off the bench.
Southern Miss finished with a season-low 12 turnovers, well below their season average. Marshall won the battle of the boards, outrebounding the Lady Eagles, 43-31.
"The first minutes of the game we did not well," McNelis said. "We didn't step up and play with the energy that we needed. When we got down 10 points, this team came rolling back and we executed defensively from that point for the entire ball game. I thought it was some of the best defense we played."
Southern Miss found themselves down by 12 points, 23-11, at the 9:36 mark in the first half. Brown sparked a 16-6 run over five minutes to cut the Herd lead to just two. Brown scored seven of the 16 points and Rucker provided six additional points during the run. Southern Miss took its first lead since the 3-2 when Ashley Kelly nailed a three-pointer in the corner as the shot clock was winding down.
The teams headed into intermission all knotted up at 32-32 when Crook scored off an offensive rebound.
Southern Miss returns home to host UAB on Friday at 7 p.m., and following with another television appearance on Sunday with a game against Memphis on CSS at 4 p.m.
