Southern Miss routs FIU to advance to C-USA Quarterfinals behind career day from Jones

Wednesday, March 9

Frisco, Texas / The Star

2 p.m.

Southern Miss

-1811,98 CUSA

(6E) FIU

-1516,612 CUSA

FIU

Southern Miss.

Photo by: Roger Steinman/Rick Yeatts Photo

Southern Miss routs FIU to advance to C-USA Quarterfinals behind career day from Jones

3/9/2022 5:56:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

FRISCO, Texas – Senior Kelsey Jones has donned the Black and Gold 108 times and ensured that Wednesday afternoon wouldn't be the last time, as the Starkville native dropped a career-high 24 points to help the Lady Eagles run past the Panthers, 78-60, at the Ford Center. "We just came in with the mentality that nobody could stop us," said Jones following the win. "Like [Coach McNelis] said, it was basically revenge from last year. We knew we were going to beat them and get to continue playing." The Panthers (15-16) had no answer for Jones, as she recorded her second double-double of the season, with 12 rebounds to go along with her 24 points on 9-of-13 shooting, matching a career-high with three steals, dished out two assists and blocked a pair of shots. As a team, the Lady Eagles (18-11) finished with a season-high 26 assists on a 32-of-63 shooting night. It marked the fourth time Southern Miss has finished with 20 or more helpers on the year, and the most in a game since the 2014-15 team also had 26 assists in a game against William Carey, while matching the fifth-most as a team in program history. Southern Miss lit the scoreboard up to open the contest, connecting on their first five attempts from the field. After Almond and Jones got to the rim for easy buckets, Domonique Davis found Brikayla Gray beyond the arc to push the Lady Eagles out to a 7-0 advantage just 1:51 into the game. FIU had no answer for Jones, with the Black and Gold continuing to feed the senior on the low block, en route to eight points on a 3-of-3 effort from the field to lead by 14 after the first 10 minutes of play. It was more of the same in the second quarter, as Jones surpassed her previous season-high of 15 points with a pair of free-throws to give her 17 at the end of the first half. In the quarter, Southern Miss had an assist on every made basket, with four different Lady Eagles dishing out at least one helper to help USM go into the locker room with a 44-25 advantage. Southern Miss cooled down slightly out of the break, committing seven turnovers that FIU was able to turn into six points and close the gap to 55-41 going into the final 10 minutes of play. The Lady Eagles returned to Jones and the lane, getting 18 of their 23 points inside the paint, to finish the game with 50 points in the paint and pick up their first win at the Conference USA Tournament since it moved to the Ford Center. "We were able to learn from our last game with [FIU]," McNelis concluded. "I thought we stayed locked in. We had 26 assists on 32 baskets. To me, that's amazing. That shows team. I'm really proud of that and the success that we had." Southern Miss continues their run tomorrow at 2 p.m. CT against Middle Tennessee in a quarterfinal matchup.