Saturday, January 14
Reed Green Coliseum
2 p.m.
Southern Miss
vs
ULM
Photo by: Joe Harper/bgnphoto.com
Lady Eagles Finish Homestand with Saturday Matinee Featuring ULM
1/13/2023 6:06:00 PM | Women's Basketball
HATTIESBURG, Miss. – Southern Miss women's basketball ends its four-game home stretch with its final home game of January in a 2 p.m. bout against ULM.
Coach Joye Lee-McNelis sits on the precipice of yet another milestone as her next win marks her 300th at the helm of the Black & Gold.
Last Time Out
McNelis & Co. returned to the right side of the W/L column with a 25-point win over Arkansas State. A 25-2 point differential in the third quarter spelled the end of the Red Wolves' evening as Southern Miss coasted to a 61-36 victory and moved to 11-5 overall and 4-1 in Sun Belt play.
Four Lady Eagles finished in double-digit scoring and freshman Chardai Watkins (Panola, Ala. // Sumter Central HS) made her first career start in the Black & Gold.
Noting the Lady Eagles
Southern Miss' offensive struggles are fairly evident but can largely be attributed to an excellent crop of opponents this season. Nine of the Lady Eagles' opponents sit within the top-100 in scoring defense and five reside in the top-50.
UC Irvine leads the group with 50.5 points allowed per game, the third-best mark in the nation. Ole Miss, Alabama, Louisiana and James Madison round out the top-50 group. Southern Miss still has four games to go against top-100 defenses but is itself ranked as the 51st-best defense in the nation.
Coach McNelis is no stranger to milestones as she is already one of winningest coaches in Division I. She is also one of 12 coaches in history to reach the 200-win mark at two different programs.
Upon reaching 300 wins at Southern Miss, the Lady Eagle program will join an exclusive club of programs boasting two head coaches with 300 or more wins as a Division I program.
The ULM Series
Southern Miss leads 16-8 all-time and is 11-1 in Reed Green Coliseum, dropping the only game in RGC in 2005.
The series began on Nov. 17, 1978 in Monroe, La. and Southern Miss currently owns a two-game winning streak over the Warhawks after taking the games in 2019 and 2021. The meeting marks the first between the two as conference mates.
Scouting the Warhawks
ULM (6-10, 2-3 Sun Belt) relies on a wide-range of players to score as eight Warhawks average between a team-leading 8.8 and 5.6 points per game.
Emma Merriweather earned Sun Belt Conference Player of the Week laurels after collecting back-to-back doubles-doubles last week and earned her third-in-a-row against Troy on Thursday.
Merriweather also carries the Warhawk rebounding efforts, having grabbed 128 of ULM's 654 boards, a whopping 19.6 percent of the total rebounds.
Sophomore guard Olivia Knight leads the Warhawks with 16 games started—the only ULM player to have started in every game—and averages 7.1 points per game along with a team-leading 48 assists.
Follow Along
Doors open at Reed Green Coliseum at 1 p.m. tomorrow with Jason Baker and Kay James going live from the courtside Lady Eagle pregame show at 1:30 p.m on the Southern Miss Sports Network or on 92.7 FM in Hattiesburg.
Lee Roberts and Larry Boyd will be lending their talent on the ESPN+ stream with links provided above.
Coach Joye Lee-McNelis sits on the precipice of yet another milestone as her next win marks her 300th at the helm of the Black & Gold.
Last Time Out
McNelis & Co. returned to the right side of the W/L column with a 25-point win over Arkansas State. A 25-2 point differential in the third quarter spelled the end of the Red Wolves' evening as Southern Miss coasted to a 61-36 victory and moved to 11-5 overall and 4-1 in Sun Belt play.
Four Lady Eagles finished in double-digit scoring and freshman Chardai Watkins (Panola, Ala. // Sumter Central HS) made her first career start in the Black & Gold.
Noting the Lady Eagles
Southern Miss' offensive struggles are fairly evident but can largely be attributed to an excellent crop of opponents this season. Nine of the Lady Eagles' opponents sit within the top-100 in scoring defense and five reside in the top-50.
UC Irvine leads the group with 50.5 points allowed per game, the third-best mark in the nation. Ole Miss, Alabama, Louisiana and James Madison round out the top-50 group. Southern Miss still has four games to go against top-100 defenses but is itself ranked as the 51st-best defense in the nation.
Coach McNelis is no stranger to milestones as she is already one of winningest coaches in Division I. She is also one of 12 coaches in history to reach the 200-win mark at two different programs.
Upon reaching 300 wins at Southern Miss, the Lady Eagle program will join an exclusive club of programs boasting two head coaches with 300 or more wins as a Division I program.
The ULM Series
Southern Miss leads 16-8 all-time and is 11-1 in Reed Green Coliseum, dropping the only game in RGC in 2005.
The series began on Nov. 17, 1978 in Monroe, La. and Southern Miss currently owns a two-game winning streak over the Warhawks after taking the games in 2019 and 2021. The meeting marks the first between the two as conference mates.
Scouting the Warhawks
ULM (6-10, 2-3 Sun Belt) relies on a wide-range of players to score as eight Warhawks average between a team-leading 8.8 and 5.6 points per game.
Emma Merriweather earned Sun Belt Conference Player of the Week laurels after collecting back-to-back doubles-doubles last week and earned her third-in-a-row against Troy on Thursday.
Merriweather also carries the Warhawk rebounding efforts, having grabbed 128 of ULM's 654 boards, a whopping 19.6 percent of the total rebounds.
Sophomore guard Olivia Knight leads the Warhawks with 16 games started—the only ULM player to have started in every game—and averages 7.1 points per game along with a team-leading 48 assists.
Follow Along
Doors open at Reed Green Coliseum at 1 p.m. tomorrow with Jason Baker and Kay James going live from the courtside Lady Eagle pregame show at 1:30 p.m on the Southern Miss Sports Network or on 92.7 FM in Hattiesburg.
Lee Roberts and Larry Boyd will be lending their talent on the ESPN+ stream with links provided above.
Players Mentioned
Guard
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