Southern Miss
Rice
Women's Hoops Drops 79-52 Setback to Rice
2/20/2011 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Feb. 20, 2011
Box Score | Box Score in PDF Format 
HATTIESBURG, Miss. - The Southern Miss women's basketball team fell behind early and could not get back into the game, falling to Rice, 79-52, Sunday afternoon at Reed Green Coliseum.
With the loss, Southern Miss falls to 10-16 overall, and 5-8 in Conference USA. Rice improves to 17-10, 9-4 in league play.
"First off you have to give Rice credit" said Southern Miss head coach Joye Lee-McNelis. "They played extremely well. Anytime Gigi Dunbar gets in foul trouble, we struggle. When Jamierra Faulkner does not play her best game, we get in trouble. When Niesha Pierce does not hit an early shot, we struggle. That's been our issue all year, and it showed up again today.
The Lady Eagles hung with Rice early. A three-pointer by Brittany Johnson 5:32 into the game made it 10-7 Rice. However, the Owls went on a 22-6 run over the next 4:56 to open up a 32-13 lead.
Southern Miss got it to within 15 points before Rice extended their lead to as many as 22 points late in the first half. An Ashlee Kelly three-pointer at the buzzer sent the Lady Eagles into the half trailing 46-29.
The second half was no different, as the Black and Gold pulled to within 14 points in the first three minutes, before the Owls extended their lead to as many as 28 the rest of the way.
"Everything that we needed to go right today went wrong for us," said Lee-McNelis. "Our transition defense wasn't very good. We did a decent job of keeping them off the offensive glass, but we did not play with an attack mentality. Overall, we did not play a very good defensive game, nor did we play a very good floor game.
Senior forward Tanesha Washington led Southern Miss with 21 points and eight rebounds. Freshman guard Jamierra Faulkner recorded seven points and seven assists, and senior guard Brittany Johnson added seven points.
Morgan Mayse led all scorers with 27 points, including 18 in the first half. Jessica Kuster had 17 points. Brianna Hypolite recorded seven points and a game-high 13 rebounds, and D'Frantz Smart added nine points, 10 rebounds and eight assists.
Southern Miss was held to just 35.6-percent (21-of-59) from the field, while Rice connected on 25-of-55 (45.5%). The Owls were 19-of-26 (73.1%) from the free throw line, while Southern Miss was just 6-of-7 (85.7%). Rice also held a big advantage on the boards, outrebounding the Lady Eagles, 41-to-30.
Southern Miss travels to El Paso, Texas, for a bout with UTEP, this Thursday, February 24, at 8:05 p.m.
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