Southern Miss
Kentucky
Southern Miss Falls to No. 9 Kentucky, 79-60
11/27/2010 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Nov. 27, 2010
HATTIESBURG, Miss. - No. 9 Kentucky used a 19-2 over the first 6:29 to open the second half in sprinting out to a 52-30 lead, then cruised to a 79-60 win over Southern Miss in the championship game of the Lady Eagle Thanksgiving Classic Saturday in Reed Green Coliseum.
Junior Rachel Vigers and Tanesha Washington led the Lady Eagles with 21 and 17 points, respectively.
A'dia Mathies, the tournament MVP, led the Wildcats with 14 points while Keyla Knowden scored 12 and Crystal Riley and Kastine Evans chipped in 11 and 10 points, respectively.
"We played a great first half of basketball, defended them and was able to execute," Coach Joye Lee-McNelis said. "We told them in the locker-room to get ready because they are going to turn the heat up and we've got to be able to handle the pressure. And we did not handle that. We needed to regain some control and composure."
Kentucky scored the first four points to start the game, but Southern Miss answered with six unanswered points in taking a 6-4 lead. The teams battled back and forth for the next seven minutes. UK led 17-16 at the 7:47 mark, but used an 11-2 run to push the lead to 28-18 just after the last media timeout. For the next 2:42, Southern Miss out scored Kentucky 10-3 to cut the lead to just three, 31-28, with 12 seconds remaining in the half, but the Wildcats were able to out run the Eagles down the court for a basket to go up 33-28 at the half.
Southern Miss shot 51.9 percent in the half.
Kentucky came out the second half with full court pressure and a trapping defense that caused problems for the Lady Eagles. USM committed seven turnovers in the first seven minutes that helped the Wildcats take a commanding lead. Kentucky led by as many as 24 points in the half.
The Lady Eagles finished the game shooting a respectable 45.8 percent from the field.
The Lady Eagles play their second nationally opponent when they travel to Georgia on Dec. 1. Tip time is 6 p.m., central.
Joining Mathies on the all-tournament team was teammate Kastine Evans, Jamierra Faulkner and Rachel Vigers from Southern Miss, Mercedes Johnson from Louisiana-Lafayette and Kayla Lowe from Murray State.
In the consolation game, Louisiana-Lafayette defeated Murray State, 79-66.
