Southern Miss
(5) East Carolina
Lady Eagles Fall in C-USA Tournament Opening Round
3/8/2010 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
March 8, 2010
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TULSA - Pauline Love may have saved her best game for last.
Playing without teammate and fellow senior Candace Rucker, the short-handed Lady Eagles were beaten by East Carolina 102-64 at the Reynolds Center in the opening round of the Conference USA Women's Basketball Championship her Monday afternoon, despite a career-best 32 points from Love.
Love wrapped her storied three-year tenure as she notched her 21st double-double of the year and 60th of her career, adding 11 rebounds in the contest. She hit 13-of-28 shots from the floor and added 5-of-9 from 3-point range. In all, the Lady Eagles tied a season-high with eight 3-pointers in the contest.
"She is a very special young lady," said Southern Miss coach Joye Lee-McNelis. "Today you saw that with her performance. In three years at Southern Miss she scored more than 1,500 points and had more than 1,000 rebounds. It is going to be real hard next year to know that when you take the floor or start practice that she is not going to be on the team."
The Luxora, Ark., native finished her career sixth in scoring with 1,576 points and third in rebounding with 1,051. She moved ahead of Wilhelmina Smith (1,046) during the contest. She finishes her career as one of just three Southern Miss women's basketball players to accumulate at least 1,500 points and 1,000 rebounds in her career.
Rucker did not dress in the contest as she suffered from the flu and did not accompany the team to the arena for the contest. Tanesha Washington added 12 points for the No. 12 seeded Lady Eagles.
"She scored 27 points when we played East Carolina at our place, and she could have helped us defensively," McNelis added. "She has guarded our opponents' best player all year."
Southern Miss could not overcome a 59 percent shooting day (33-of-56) from the Pirates (21-9), which included 11-of-17 from 3-point range (65 percent).
"They shot lights out, and they played very, very well," McNelis said. "They played like a team that belonged."
Five players scored in double figures for the Pirates as they were led by Shala Hodges who tallied 17 points off the bench. Kim Gay and Chareya Smith each added 13 points, while Allison Spivey and Celeste Stewart added 10 points apiece.
The 102 points was the most ever surrendered by Southern Miss in a C-USA Tournament contest and the most given up since allowing 105 to UTEP last season.
The two teams traded the first 10 points of the contest but with the score knotted at five all with 2:18 into the contest, ECU went on an 11-point run and never looked back. The lead swelled to as many as 28 in the opening half at 46-18 with 3:34 to play, and the Pirates went into intermission up 48-25.
Southern Miss (9-21) cut the deficit to 17 at 62-45 with 12:57 left in the contest, but that was as close as the Lady Eagles got the rest of the way.
It was the first time the Lady Eagles suffered a loss in the opening round since 2007.
