University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Friday, February 26
Boca Raton, Fla. / Abessinio Court at FAU Arena
4:00 p.m.
Southern Miss
at
Florida Atlantic
McNelis Searches for 500th Career Win at FAU
2/25/2021 8:53:00 PM | Women's Basketball
BOCA RATON, Fla. – Southern Miss women's basketball coach Joye Lee-McNelis has the opportunity to join an elite group of just 83 other D1 women's basketball coaches this weekend, as she currently sits at 499 career wins and is one shy of the 500 mark. Her team will face the Florida Atlantic Owls on Friday at 4 p.m. CT and Saturday at 1 p.m. CT at the FAU Arena for the final two games of the regular season.
"We're really looking forward to the weekend," McNelis said. "FAU is a very good basketball team. The Lady Eagles will have a tough challenge ahead of us. We look forward to it and will give it our best shot."
SCOUTING THE OWLS
• Head Coach Jim Jabir is in his fourth season at the helm of the Owls.
• FAU welcomes four first-year members to the squad. Iggy Allen is a graduate transfer from Miami, Rita Pleskevich transferred from Washington, Bre Beck is a junior college transfer from Wabash Valley and Kimia Carter joins FAU after one year at Stetson.
• Allen leads the team in scoring, averaging 21.9 PPG, while also grabbing 11.0 RPG.
• The Owls are coming off of a split with UTEP, and currently sit fourth in the east division with a 5-7 record.
SCOUTING THE LADY EAGLES
• Head Coach Joye Lee-McNelis is in her 30th year as a head coach in the 2020-21 season. She came to Southern Miss after spending 13 years as the head coach of Memphis.
• Southern Miss is 7-1 this season when holding opponents under 70 points with the one loss coming in overtime. Consequently, the Golden Eagles are 0-8 when opponents score 70 or more.
• The Lady Eagles currently have three freshmen averaging 7.1 PPG or more, and are getting 45.4% of their scoring from the five freshmen on the roster.
• Point Guard Daishai Almond went viral this week, after her fake out of an FIU defender made its way on SportsCenter. The video has over 650K views, while amassing 24.3K likes on Twitter.
SERIES HISTORY
Overall: USM leads 7-1
In Hattiesburg: USM leads 3-0
In Boca Raton: USM leads 4-1
Last Meeting: USM, 59-55, 3/5/20
"We're really looking forward to the weekend," McNelis said. "FAU is a very good basketball team. The Lady Eagles will have a tough challenge ahead of us. We look forward to it and will give it our best shot."
SCOUTING THE OWLS
• Head Coach Jim Jabir is in his fourth season at the helm of the Owls.
• FAU welcomes four first-year members to the squad. Iggy Allen is a graduate transfer from Miami, Rita Pleskevich transferred from Washington, Bre Beck is a junior college transfer from Wabash Valley and Kimia Carter joins FAU after one year at Stetson.
• Allen leads the team in scoring, averaging 21.9 PPG, while also grabbing 11.0 RPG.
• The Owls are coming off of a split with UTEP, and currently sit fourth in the east division with a 5-7 record.
SCOUTING THE LADY EAGLES
• Head Coach Joye Lee-McNelis is in her 30th year as a head coach in the 2020-21 season. She came to Southern Miss after spending 13 years as the head coach of Memphis.
• Southern Miss is 7-1 this season when holding opponents under 70 points with the one loss coming in overtime. Consequently, the Golden Eagles are 0-8 when opponents score 70 or more.
• The Lady Eagles currently have three freshmen averaging 7.1 PPG or more, and are getting 45.4% of their scoring from the five freshmen on the roster.
• Point Guard Daishai Almond went viral this week, after her fake out of an FIU defender made its way on SportsCenter. The video has over 650K views, while amassing 24.3K likes on Twitter.
SERIES HISTORY
Overall: USM leads 7-1
In Hattiesburg: USM leads 3-0
In Boca Raton: USM leads 4-1
Last Meeting: USM, 59-55, 3/5/20
Players Mentioned
Guard
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