Southern Miss
South Alabama
Women's Basketball Tops South Alabama 64-53
11/17/2014 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
MOBILE, Ala. - The Southern Miss women's basketball team shot 59.1 percent in the second half as the Lady Eagles defeated South Alabama 64-53 in non-conference action Monday night and winning for the first time in Mobile since 1997.
Southern Miss improved to 2-0 while South Alabama dropped to 1-0.
"We you go up 18, you should just put the game away and we did not," Head Coach Joye Lee-McNelis said. "Their pressure cost us because we relaxed a little. We were throwing the ball around and we didn't make good decisions. If there is a part of the game that I'm most disappointed in is that last four minutes.
"The 16-minute segment in the second half, I thought we played like we were capable of. A lot of players played a lot of minutes and made a lot of things happened. It was a good win for us. Coming here and winning was huge for us," said McNelis.
Tamara Jones and Kierra Jordan came off the bench to lead the team in scoring with 16 and 14 points, respectively. Jerontay Clemons and Jordan pulled down seven rebounds each.
After the Lady Eagles took a six point lead to start the second half, South Alabama fought back to cut the lead to 33-31. From there, Southern Miss scored the next 13 points to push the lead to 46-31 and never looked back. The Lady Eagles would eventually push the lead 18 with 5:34 remaining. However, the Jaguars did not go quietly as South Alabama outscored the Lady Eagles 11-2 in cutting the lead to 60-51. Brooke Rhodes found Jones underneath for a basket to push the lead back to double digits, but USA got another basket with 36 seconds remaining. Jones hit the final two free throws for the 64-53 win.
"I thought we came out the second half and really got things going," McNelis said. "From the 20 minute mark to the four-minute mark, we played really good basketball. The best played the entire game was that 16-minute stretch. We did a lot of good things. Kierra Jordan was a beast for us in the post. They did not have an answer for her. She scored, she posted up and dominated. Tamara was a huge factor for us in the second half and got things going for. We got a lot of solid play from multiple people."
Southern Miss scored the first two points to start the game, but South Alabama quickly erased that with a 7-0 run in taking a 7-2 lead. From there, the Jaguars increased their lead to 13-4 using a 6-2 run. The Lady Eagles defense began forcing South Alabama into turnovers and began chipping away at the lead. Jerontay Clemons ignited an 8-0 run in cutting the lead to 13-12. South Alabama answered with four straight points for the 17-12.
Brooke Rhodes then connected on a three that started a 9-0 run to give Southern Miss a 21-19 advantage at the 9:04 mark. For the next two minutes, turnovers and missed easy baskets plagued both teams as neither team was able to take advantage. USA tied the game at 21-21 before Southern Miss outscored USA 7-4 down the stretch for the 28-25 lead at the half.
Breanna Hall led South Alabama with 16 points while Simonne Pitts had a team-best six rebounds.
Southern Miss finished the game shooting 44.6 percent and out rebounded USA 41-26. The Lady Eagles scored 44 points in the paint.
The Lady Eagles return home to host Mississippi Valley State on Wednesday at 6 p.m.
