University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Southern Miss
East Carolina
Southern Miss Upends League-Leading East Carolina
2/4/2010 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Feb. 4, 2010
HATTIESBURG, Miss. - Looking for its second-straight victory, Southern Miss was not going to have it easy against league-leading East Carolina.
The Lady Eagles, though, behind a season-high tying 23 points from Candace Rucker, led for most of the game to register a 59-55 Conference USA victory over the Pirates here Thursday night at Reed Green Coliseum.
"In the second half we executed when we had to," Southern Miss coach Joye Lee-McNelis said. "Even when they began to come back, you could see it in our players' eyes that they still believed they could win. It is something that we have not seen all year, even though they have wanted to win all year."
Southern Miss led for most of the contest and held a 10-point advantage with 17 minutes to play before visiting ECU rallied and tied the score at 48-48 with 9:42 remaining.
Pauline Love, who recorded her 13th double-double of the season and 52 over her career with both 11 points and rebounds, put the Lady Eagles up for good by converting a three-point play with 8:25 left and USM did not trail the rest of the way.
Still, ECU (17-5, 6-3) managed to cut the margin to two in the game's final minute at 57-55, but Rucker hit two free throws with 25.3 seconds remaining to push the contest to a two-possession game. USM had a chance to extend that advantage with 13.3 seconds left, but Ashlee Kelly missed the Lady Eagles' lone free throw. Southern Miss ended the night by converting 8-of-9 free throws.
The Pirates did not get a shot on the next possession as Ashley Clarke had the ball ricochet off her foot out of bounds to allow Southern Miss to run out the clock.
Tanesha Washington added 11 points off the bench for USM, while Ariana Jackson led ECU with 13 points and Allison Spivey added 12.
The Lady Eagles conclude a three-game homestand Saturday when they entertain Marshall in a 4 p.m., tilt at Green Coliseum. It will be Take a Kid to the Game/National Girls and Women in Sports Day as well as Pink Zone 1 - the first of two games during the month of February in which the Lady Eagles will wear pink jerseys.
