Southern Miss
Georgia
No. 21/22 Georgia Outlasts Southern Miss, 70-53
12/1/2010 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Dec. 1, 2010
ATHENS, Ga. - No. 21/22 Georgia shot 60.7 percent from the field in the second half in defeating Southern Miss, 70-53, Wednesday.
Southern Miss falls to 3-3 on the young season while Georgia improves to 6-1.
Brittany Johnson scored a career-high 16 points and Tanesha Washington added her third double-double with 13 points and 11 rebounds for the Lady Eagles.
"We played great in the first half," Coach Joye Lee-McNelis said. "I thought we did a lot of good things. We executed well and we defended the heck out of them. In the second half, we lost sight of our man and didn't communicate when we were switching. Coming out of the half is beginning to haunt us again and that's something we have to solve."
Jasmine James led Georgia with a game-high 18 points with Ronika Ransford and Porsha Phillips adding 11 and 10 points, respectively.
"We talked about what we wanted to do offensively so that we could make something happen," McNelis said. "We were going to Brittany, out of the half, to get her a shot. She shot the ball very well in the first half. She was the bright spot for us tonight."
The Lady Eagles trailed by only five points at the half, 26-21, when the Lady Bulldogs opened the second half with a 20-10 run in extending their lead to double digits, 46-31 at the 14:16 mark.
Washington and Johnson scored on back-to-back baskets to cut the lead to 46-35, but Georgia scored four unanswered points to push its lead back to 15. Johnson then connected on consecutive baskets and Jamierra Faulkner added a bucket to cut the lead to 52-41 with 8:56 remaining.
The Bulldogs then put together a 15-2 run over a four-minute span to take their largest lead of the game at 66-43 in putting the game out of reach. However, for the remainder of the game, Southern Miss outscored Georgia, 10-4.
Both team struggled from the field over the first 10 minutes of the game. With 5:47 remaining before the half, Southern Miss led 15-14 before Georgia closed out the half with a 12-6 run and a 26-21 halftime lead.
Southern Miss won the battle of the boards, 40-38, and collected nine steals.
The Lady Eagles return home to host UALR on Saturday, Dec. 4, at 5 p.m.
