University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Southern Miss
Florida Atlantic
Lady Eagle Hoops Stun Florida Atlantic 67-65
2/14/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
BOCA RATON, Fla. - The Southern Miss women's basketball team outscored Florida Atlantic 12-0 in the final 2:30 in stealing a 67-65 victory Saturday evening, winning its fifth-straight game.
Southern Miss improved to 17-7 overall and 10-3 in Conference USA while FAU dropped to 11-12 and 5-7.
"That was one of the most exciting final two minutes you could imagine," head coach Joye Lee-McNelis said. "We were kind of dead in the water. We had not played well in our matchup, we tried man and they took advantage of us. We went to our full-court press it caught them off guard.
"Our players were not playing with a lot of energy, then all of sudden, they caught fire," McNelis said. "Again, it gave us opportunities to be able to score the basketball. We were running exact sets to get certain players to be able to get baskets. That was the biggest difference was Brittanny Dinkins putting the ball on the floor and making the pass to Kierra for the basket."
Tamara Jones and Jerontay Clemons finished with 18 points each while Jones grabbed a team-best seven rebounds. Clemons also had four steals. Alex Coyne dished out five assists.
"We played with no fear," said McNelis. "We're going to figure out how to win it and play hard in the final 4:36 when I called that timeout. I challenged them. Early in the game we did not guard the ball hard. They had some players step up and make some big shots for them."
Southern Miss trailed 63-51 with 3:40 remaining when the Lady Eagles mounted the come-from-behind effort. Brittanny Dinkins connected a pair of free throws to ignite the run. Clemons came up with a steal and hit a layup to cut the lead to 63-55. FAU added a pair for free throws to push the lead to 65-55 with 2:30 remaining. From there, it was all Southern Miss. Clemons hit a driving layup before Clemons came up with a steal and Dinkins found Jones on the break for the layup. She converted the three-point play to get the score to 65-60. Jones then scored again, but could not complete the three-point in cutting the lead to 65-62 with 1:34 remaining. After a defensive stop by the Lady Eagles, Clemons maneuvered her way to the basket for the layup to cut the lead to 65-64 with 51 seconds remaining. After another defensive stop for Southern Miss and time winding down, Dinkins penetrated the lane and found Kierra Jordan for the bucket and the lead, 66-65. The Lady Eagles then forced FAU into a turnover with 2.4 seconds to go. On the inbounds pass, Jones was fouled and made one-of-two for the final score of 67-65.
Florida Atlantic opened the game scoring the first five points of the game before Voche' Martin put the Lady Eagles on the scoreboard. FAU extended its lead to 7-2 before Jones scored on a jumper in the paint. The teams battled back and forth over a span of six minutes. With FAU leading, 19-14, Southern Miss then used an 8-0 run in taking a 22-19 lead. The teams continued to battle and tied the game on three occasions down the stretch. FAU led 30-29 at the break.
The Lady Eagles shot 50 percent from the field in the second half and finished the game shooting 42.6 percent from the field. Southern Miss struggled from behind the arc going 1-of-15. The Lady Eagles outscored FAU 42-22 in the paint and had 22 points off 22 Owl turnovers.
Morgan Robinson led FAU with 19 points while Malia Kency had 16 and Shaneese Bailey added 11. Robinson, Sasha Cedeno and Melinda Myers all pulled down seven rebounds.
Southern Miss returns home to host Old Dominion in the annual Pink game on Feb. 19 with a 6 p.m. tip-off. The first 300 fans receive a pink t-shirt.
