Saturday, January 4
Reed Green Coliseum
4 p.m.
Southern Miss
-93, 10 CUSA
66
vs
60
Louisiana Tech
-84, 01 CUSA
1
2
3
4
F
LA Tech
10
14
12
24
60
Southern Miss
12
13
20
21
66
Lady Eagles Start 2020 With a Conference Win Over LA Tech
1/4/2020 8:10:00 PM | Women's Basketball
Southern Miss was led by Respect Leaphart, who had her first double-double of the season.
HATTIESBURG, Miss. – It was a good night in Hattiesburg as the Lady Eagles of Southern Miss women's basketball defeated LA Tech 66-60 to start 2020 and the Conference slate.
Southern Miss (9-3, 1-0) defeated Louisiana Tech (8-4, 0-1) to begin the second half of their season on Saturday afternoon in Reed Green Coliseum. A strong start was seen from both teams, as Southern Miss held the lead at the half by just one point, 25-24. The Lady Eagles came back from the break ready for action and lit up the court, outscoring the Lady Techsters 20-12 in the third frame. It was neck-and-neck in the fourth quarter, and with a meager 42 seconds on the clock, the Lady Eagles had just three points over LA Tech. They had started the quarter with a nine point advantage and were up by as much as 13 two separate times. Shonte Hailes secured the win for Southern Miss with a 3-pointer with 16 seconds on the clock.
The Lady Eagles were led by senior Respect Leaphart, who recorded her sixth career double-double, the first of this season, against the Lady Techsters. The Fort Myers, Fla. native finished the night with 11 rebounds, 15 points, two assists, one block, and one steal. She also took two charges against LA Tech. A standout performance was also seen from junior Allie Kennedy, who went 4-of-6 from the field and 2-for-4 from the 3-point line in route to a season-high 13 points, all coming in the second half. She was also perfect from the free throw line at 3-3. Four Lady Eagles in total scored in double digits: Respect Leaphart with 15, Allie Kennedy with 13, Shonte Hailes with 13, Alarie Mayze with 12. The last time that happened was in the WBI Tournament last year against North Alabama.
Southern Miss is now 12-13 in C-USA openers and 7-4 when those openers are in Reed Green Coliseum. The Lady Eagles will meet the Lady Techsters again come February, when they will travel to Ruston on Thursday, Feb. 20. When they do so, LA Tech will only hold the series record by one win, as the record changes to 9-8 after Saturday's contest.
The Game According to Head Coach Joye Lee-McNelis
We were able to win quarters. We go in with the halftime lead, we got some good buckets, Kelsey [Jones] hit some good buckets for us to be able to head into that with some momentum. That third quarter, Allie Kennedy – we got her. Dump did a tremendous job of getting her in the right spot and getting her feet set. It gave her a tremendous amount of confidence and things began to roll for us. We've got to be able to guard the basketball in crunch time. Alarie Mayze does a heck of a job to guard the cross. We hung our hat on our defense for 34 minutes, but to finish games, defensive rebounding is the difference. I think that's why they made that run; we relaxed. We're up 10 with four minutes left in the fourth but that's not a done deal, not in this league. You can't say enough about that [final 3-point shot from Hailes]. You can't say enough about the plays she made down the stretch for us. In crunch time, Shonte Hailes has got to have the ball in her hands because she's the senior and she's got to have some ownership to make some plays. I think that truly was the difference in our offense."
Junior Allie Kennedy
"It felt wonderful, I haven't felt like that in a long time. It's so good I can't even describe it, that high of coming off the bench. This is a huge game, we knew we had to have this game to get off to a good start. I knew that shot from the three from Shonte Hailes at the end of the game was in, I was going crazy."
Senior Shonte Hailes
"Oh no doubt, we think Allie can make every shot she takes. When Allie is knocking down shots, she is pretty good, and when she's on the court with me and we're both knocking them down, it's hard to stop us. Once Allie gets going she's going off the chain. We wanted to be in the 1-0 side of the bracket and we've got two at home we need to win and we don't lose in Reed Green; we take pride in that. Those two here, we've got to get those."
Up Next
The Lady Eagles will continue their four-game home streak with game three against UTEP on Thursday, Jan. 9 at 6 p.m. in Reed Green.
Southern Miss (9-3, 1-0) defeated Louisiana Tech (8-4, 0-1) to begin the second half of their season on Saturday afternoon in Reed Green Coliseum. A strong start was seen from both teams, as Southern Miss held the lead at the half by just one point, 25-24. The Lady Eagles came back from the break ready for action and lit up the court, outscoring the Lady Techsters 20-12 in the third frame. It was neck-and-neck in the fourth quarter, and with a meager 42 seconds on the clock, the Lady Eagles had just three points over LA Tech. They had started the quarter with a nine point advantage and were up by as much as 13 two separate times. Shonte Hailes secured the win for Southern Miss with a 3-pointer with 16 seconds on the clock.
The Lady Eagles were led by senior Respect Leaphart, who recorded her sixth career double-double, the first of this season, against the Lady Techsters. The Fort Myers, Fla. native finished the night with 11 rebounds, 15 points, two assists, one block, and one steal. She also took two charges against LA Tech. A standout performance was also seen from junior Allie Kennedy, who went 4-of-6 from the field and 2-for-4 from the 3-point line in route to a season-high 13 points, all coming in the second half. She was also perfect from the free throw line at 3-3. Four Lady Eagles in total scored in double digits: Respect Leaphart with 15, Allie Kennedy with 13, Shonte Hailes with 13, Alarie Mayze with 12. The last time that happened was in the WBI Tournament last year against North Alabama.
Southern Miss is now 12-13 in C-USA openers and 7-4 when those openers are in Reed Green Coliseum. The Lady Eagles will meet the Lady Techsters again come February, when they will travel to Ruston on Thursday, Feb. 20. When they do so, LA Tech will only hold the series record by one win, as the record changes to 9-8 after Saturday's contest.
The Game According to Head Coach Joye Lee-McNelis
We were able to win quarters. We go in with the halftime lead, we got some good buckets, Kelsey [Jones] hit some good buckets for us to be able to head into that with some momentum. That third quarter, Allie Kennedy – we got her. Dump did a tremendous job of getting her in the right spot and getting her feet set. It gave her a tremendous amount of confidence and things began to roll for us. We've got to be able to guard the basketball in crunch time. Alarie Mayze does a heck of a job to guard the cross. We hung our hat on our defense for 34 minutes, but to finish games, defensive rebounding is the difference. I think that's why they made that run; we relaxed. We're up 10 with four minutes left in the fourth but that's not a done deal, not in this league. You can't say enough about that [final 3-point shot from Hailes]. You can't say enough about the plays she made down the stretch for us. In crunch time, Shonte Hailes has got to have the ball in her hands because she's the senior and she's got to have some ownership to make some plays. I think that truly was the difference in our offense."
Junior Allie Kennedy
"It felt wonderful, I haven't felt like that in a long time. It's so good I can't even describe it, that high of coming off the bench. This is a huge game, we knew we had to have this game to get off to a good start. I knew that shot from the three from Shonte Hailes at the end of the game was in, I was going crazy."
Senior Shonte Hailes
"Oh no doubt, we think Allie can make every shot she takes. When Allie is knocking down shots, she is pretty good, and when she's on the court with me and we're both knocking them down, it's hard to stop us. Once Allie gets going she's going off the chain. We wanted to be in the 1-0 side of the bracket and we've got two at home we need to win and we don't lose in Reed Green; we take pride in that. Those two here, we've got to get those."
Up Next
The Lady Eagles will continue their four-game home streak with game three against UTEP on Thursday, Jan. 9 at 6 p.m. in Reed Green.
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Team Stats
105091
USM
FG%
.339
.442
3FG%
.250
.375
FT%
.765
.636
RB
36
38
TO
16
18
STL
5
10
Game Leaders
Scoring
Pts
15
FGM
6
3FGM
1
FTM
2
Pts
13
FGM
4
3FGM
2
FTM
3
Pts
13
FGM
5
3FGM
3
FTM
0
Pts
12
FGM
4
3FGM
0
FTM
4
Players Mentioned
Guard
/ Women's Basketball
Guard
/ Women's Basketball
Forward
/ Women's Basketball
Guard/Forward
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