Lady Eagles Ride Jean’s 23 Points to Victory in Battle for Mayor’s Cup

Monday, November 11

Reed Green Coliseum

6 p.m.

Southern Miss

2-1,0-0Sun Belt

William Carey

0-1

Team	1	2	3	4	F
William Carey	8	10	13	16	47
Southern Miss.	22	13	18	13	66

Melyia Grayson (45) hoists the Mayor's Cup

Lady Eagles Ride Jean’s 23 Points to Victory in Battle for Mayor’s Cup

11/11/2024 9:57:00 PM | Women's Basketball

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HATTIESBURG, Miss. – Southern Miss led wire-to-wire in a dominant 66-47 win over William Carey on Monday at Reed Green Coliseum. The Lady Eagles connected on 26-of-62 field goals and scored 27 in transition to collect their 20th consecutive win over William Carey. Senior guard Nyla Jean scored a career-best 23 points on an 8-of-13 shooting line and an impressive 4-of-6 from behind the arc.

"We faced a very good William Carey team," said 21st-year head coach Joye Lee-McNelis. "They were solid [last season] and they've added some new players that have really been game changers for them. Our goal was to go out in the first quarter and try and be the most impressive team on the floor [and we] scored 22 points basically out of our defense.

"Nyla Jean came off the bench and really stepped up. She gave us a real energy lift for us to be able to get those 22 [first quarter] points."

Southern Miss (2-1) scored the first seven points of the game in just over two minutes, beginning with a Morgan Sieper (Tampa, Fla.) three ball on the first possession of the game. Sieper went on to hit another three later in the day and finished with eight points and two assists. Melyia Grayson (Hattiesburg, Miss.) scored the next four before William Carey (3-0) found their first points of the game at the 6:32 mark.

Nyla Jean (Tampa, Fla.) silenced any whispers of a Lady Crusader run with a second chance three pointer to make the score 10-2. Jean had eight of the Lady Eagles' 22 points in a first quarter where Southern Miss shot 9-of-17 from the floor (52.9 percent).

Jean scored four more in the second quarter as Southern Miss' red-hot offense cooled.

"The second quarter, we kind of went a little slow. We were not as aggressive as we wanted to be, and those are things that we've got to continue to get better at."

Carey forced six Lady Eagle turnovers but was only able to turn them into two points. Southern Miss' defense held the Lady Crusaders to a 3-of-15 showing in the second frame and led 35-18 at the half time break.

Grayson scored her eighth and final official points of the evening to open the third quarter. Her first career three-point basket was waved off in the frame due to an off-ball foul, eventually ending her night with eight points and 13 rebounds. She held a +/- of 12 in 25 minutes, but her lack of production was largely due to William Carey's defensive approach in locking her down.

"Carey did a tremendous job on doubling, tripling and quadrupling Melyia," said McNelis. "They did a phenomenal job beating her on the cross action and knocking her off the line. All of that was an opportunity to learn from that."

With Grayson pinned down in the interior, Southern Miss was able to score from outside and move the ball almost at will. The Lady Eagles hit a season-high seven three pointers on 24 attempts.

Down the stretch, William Carey kept themselves in the conversation, but were never able to fully close the gap. Southern Miss led by as many as 27 in the fourth quarter after an 8-0 scoring run before William Carey scored a total of 16 fourth quarter points on Southern Miss' bench.

"In the fourth quarter, we just kind of got a little lazy to be honest with you. We were giving a lot of players an opportunity to play that haven't played much."

Jean scored a total of 11 second half points to finish off her career-high scoring day. Her 23 points tonight beat her previous high of 19 points set at Georgia State against James Madison in the 2023 Sun Belt Conference Tournament.

Ava Shields (Hammond, La.) played her first minutes of the game and highlighted her long range shooting by sinking a three for her first career points.

Up Next
Southern Miss travels to Hammond, America, to take on Southeastern. The Lady Lions took No. 21 Nebraska to the wire on the road in Lincoln, Neb., and are coming off five days' rest before hosting the Lady Eagles.

Tipoff at the Pride Roofing University Center is set for 6 p.m. An ESPN+ stream will be provided by Southeastern while a radio broadcast by Maxwell Greenough on the Southern Miss Sports Network begins with the Lady Eagle Basketball Pregame show at 5:30 p.m.

Celebrating 50 Seasons of Southern Miss Women's Basketball
The 2024-25 season of Southern Miss Lady Eagle Basketball marks a major milestone for the program and for The University of Southern Mississippi as the women's basketball program celebrates its 50th season of competition. Following the adoption of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, Southern Miss added women's basketball and women's tennis as official athletic programs beginning in the 1975-76 season. Since then, the Lady Eagles have laid out five decades of excellence on and off the court. To celebrate this golden jubilee, Southern Miss women's basketball will host its 50th Season Celebration and Reunion on Saturday, January 18, against South Alabama at Reed Green Coliseum.

Follow The Lady Eagles
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