University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Women's Basketball Plays Final Regular Season Road Game Saturday
2/26/2010 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Feb. 26, 2010
DALLAS - The Southern Miss women's basketball team finishes the road portion of its regular season when they take on SMU here Saturday in a 2 p.m., contest at Moody Coliseum.
The Lady Eagles (9-18 overall, 5-9 C-USA) look to rebound from a 76-61 defeat in Tulsa Thursday night which snapped a two-game winning streak.
USM senior Pauline Love becomes just the third Lady Eagle in history to reach both the 1,500-point and 1,000-rebound marks, after hitting both plateaus during the contest with 24 points and 12 rebounds. It was her 17th double-double and 56th of her career. She currently has four-straight double-double performances and 11 in her last 12 games.
The only other two Lady Eagles to reach those plateaus were Janice Felder (1990-94) and Portland McCaskill (1981-85).
Senior Candace Rucker ranks second on the squad in scoring at 11.7 points per game, while Tanesha Washington has tallied 11.2 per game.
Washington, who has been hot as of late, also is averaging 15.5 points, 5.5 rebounds and 3.0 assists over the last two games, giving the Lady Eagles quality production.
SMU enters the contest at 18-9 overall and 8-6 in league play. The Mustangs have won two consecutive contests, including a 69-61 home triumph over UCF on Thursday night.
Brittany Gilliam paces the Mustangs at 14.8 points per game, while both Christine Elliott and Jillian Samuels are tallying 11.4 points per tilt. Elliott also leads the team in rebounding at 8.0 boards per contest.
This will be the seventh time the two teams have met in women's basketball with SMU holding a 4-2 advantage in the series. Southern Miss is 1-2 against SMU here. The game can be heard by WXHB-FM, 96.5, with Josh West providing the call. Gametracker is available for free and a webcast of the game can be seen for members of Southern Miss All-Access at SouthernMiss.com.
The team concludes the regular season with Senior night next Wednesday, March 3, with a 7 p.m., contest against UCF.
