Southern Miss
Western Kentucky
Southern Miss Opens Conference Play at Western Kentucky
12/29/2021 12:08:00 PM | Women's Basketball
HATTIESBURG, Miss. – The Southern Miss women's basketball team heads to Bowling Green, Ky. to open their Conference USA slate on Thursday evening. Tipoff from E.A. Diddle Arena is set for 6:30 p.m. CT.
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Scouting the Lady Toppers
• Head coach Greg Collins holds a 56-42 record with the Toppers and is currently in his fourth season at the helm of WKU's program.
• The Lady Toppers enter non-conference play at 7-4, most recently defeating FDU by four on Dec. 17.
• Senior Meral Abdelgawad earned Conference USA Player of the Week honors after averaging 26.5 points, 7.0 rebounds, 2.0 assists and 2.0 steals per game on the week.
• Adbelgawad tied her career with 33 points at Fairleigh Dickinson, a mark she had just set two games prior against Tennessee Tech. She became only the second NCAA Division I player this season to record multiple games with 33 points or more.
• WKU's roster features only one upperclassman for the 2021-22 season in Abdelgawad. In all, the Lady Toppers will be made up of five freshmen, two redshirt-freshmen, three sophomores, one redshirt-sophomore and one senior.
Scouting the Lady Eagles
• Southern Miss has scored more than 50% of its points from inside the paint in all but two contests this season. The Lady Eagles scored their most points inside the lane this season with 46 points in the paint against Alabama A&M.
• Dating back to the 2019-20 season, Southern Miss is 15-1 when holding opponents under 70 points, with the only loss coming against FIU in OT last season. Consequently, the Lady Eagles are 0-15 when giving up 70 or more.
• Southern Miss has been getting after it on the offensive boards, as the Lady Eagles currently lead Conference USA and are 14th in the country through the first 11 games of the season. The Black and Gold are pulling down an average of 16.2 offensive boards per game and have been in double figures in the category in every game expect one.
• Southern Miss currently leads Conference USA with 15.8 assists per game and have dished out 174 dimes on the season. Transfer Domonique Davis ranks second for the league with 45 helpers on the season.
• The Lady Eagles are 12-14 all-time in Conference USA openers. Under McNelis, Southern Miss is 9-8 to start conference play, including winning four-straight from 2013 to 2016.
