Southern Miss
-84,01 CUSA
Western Kentucky
-84,10 CUSA
Shorthanded Lady Eagles Drop Shootout at WKU
12/30/2021 9:56:00 PM | Women's Basketball
BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – Southern Miss women's basketball recorded a season-high 88 points, but it wasn't enough as the Lady Eagles fell to Western Kentucky, 98-88, inside of E.A. Diddle Arena on Thursday evening.
"We did a really poor job in our transition defense," said head coach Joye Lee-McNelis following the loss. "In 12 hours this game needs to be beyond us. We have to be able to go again. We have to be able to let everyone know what we need to change, which is our transition defense, to be able to battle at Marshall."
Melyia Grayson dropped a career-high 24 points in the loss, as the sophomore recorded 20 or more points for the third time this season, while also recording her third double-double in the last four games as she added 10 rebounds on the night.
Senior Destiny Smith scored a career-high 15, while pulling down a season-high seven rebounds. In total, five different Lady Eagles (8-4, 0-1 C-USA) finished in double-figures, with Brikayla Gray matching Smith with 15 points, Daishai Almond going for 13 points and Domonique Davis adding 12 points of her own.
Almond was all over the stat sheet, recording eight rebounds, six steals and five assists in 30 minutes of action for the Lady Eagles.
It was Grayson who got the Lady Eagle offense going in the first ten minutes of play, igniting USM by scoring the first six points of the contest. Going cold for over a two-minute stretch, Smith drew a foul and got the bucket to go to make it a three-point game, and converted the and-1 to cut the lead to two midway through the opening quarter of play. With under a minute left in the opening stanza, Davis knocked down her only three-pointer of the game to make it a 25-24 ballgame after 10 minutes of play with both teams shooting it at 50-percent to open the contest.
Kelsey Jones gave Southern Miss its only lead of the game with a made layup to open the second quarter at 26-25, but it lasted just 37 seconds as a made three-ball from Hope Sivori put the Lady Toppers back on top for the rest of the ballgame. Trailing by as many as eight halfway through the period, Southern Miss answered with an 8-0 run to tie the ballgame at 37 each. WKU again had the answer, as the Lady Toppers went on a 9-2 run of their own to lead, 48-41, going into halftime.
The Lady Eagles had no answer for Meral Abdelgawad coming out of the locker room, as she hit three-straight 3's in the opening possessions, as part of her career-high 36 points to extend the WKU lead out to 11 in the opening minutes of play in the third. A big basket from Almond as the buzzer sounded to end the quarter put the Lady Topper advantage at 70-60 going into the final 10 minutes of play.
Despite being down four players, the Lady Eagles refused to go away, scoring the first eight points of the quarter to cut the WKU lead to just two points with 7:52 remaining in the ballgame. It was as close as USM would get, with Mya Meredith knocking down her third triple of the game to go along with a career-high 24 points and preserve the win for the Lady Toppers.
Southern Miss faces a short turnaround as they head north to face Marshall on Saturday. Tipoff against the Herd is set for noon on ESPN+.
