TULSA, Okla. ? The University of South Alabama women’s basketball team battled back from a pair of double digit second half deficits, but fell 60-55 to Tulsa Friday night at the Donald W. Reynolds Center.
“Clearly I feel much better about our team’s overall performance in losing tonight than I did in winning on Sunday,” said South Alabama head coach Rick Pietri. “I think we competed hard in adverse situations. We got behind a lot on the road and we had a lot going against us, yet we were still able to find a way to battle back and put ourselves into a position to tie or take the lead on two occasions late in the game. It’s just disappointing we weren’t able to close and finish it.”
Tulsa improves to 2-0 with the win, while USA falls to 1-1. The Lady Jags will next return home to take on Belhaven College Monday night at 7 p.m. at the Mitchell Center.
The host Hurricane came out in the first stanza and led from the outset, jumping out to a quick 5-0 lead with just over a minute played. Tulsa used hot shooting from the floor, knocking down eight of its first 11 opportunities to grab an eight point lead at 15-7 on a Larissa Williams’ free throw at the 11:59 mark. During the first eight minute, South Alabama also committed 11 turnovers. With Tulsa still holding an eight point advantage (23-15) with seven minutes, 32 seconds remaining in the opening frame, USA began to claw its way back. Over the next three minutes, the Lady Jags reeled off eight of the next nine points and after a Monique Jones layup at the 4:06 mark, cut the deficit to one at 24-23. The Golden Hurricane from that point one however closed out the half on a 9-0 run to head into the locker room with a 33-23 lead. Whitney Woodard paced the Jaguars in the first half with 11 points.
Trailing by 10 coming out of the intermission, the Lady Jags began to chip away at the Tulsa advantage. With just over 15 minutes remaining, Patriece Brunner found a slashing Valencia Boswell cutting to the basket for a layup to cut the margin to two at 38-36. South Alabama kept the deficit at around the four to six point range until Tulsa pushed its lead back out to double digits again (50-40) after a pair of free throws from Dana Idlet with six minutes, 52 seconds to play. Preseason All-American candidate Jillian Robbins provided the offense for the Golden Hurricane to open the second half, recording their first nine points. As they had shown all night, the Jags refused to quit. Over the next three minutes, USA again answered back with a 9-0 run. Boswell capped off the South Alabama scoring spurt with another driving layup with three minutes, 46 seconds remaining in regulation to trim the deficit to 50-49. After a pair of Jamie Dreiling a minute later, USA again cut the deficit to one after a Cortney Brown put back. Tulsa turned the ball over on its next possession, but USA was unable to capitalize as it was unable to convert on a three-pointer from the corner. The Golden Hurricane hit its free throws down the stretch and held on to take the 60-55 victory.
South Alabama placed three players in double figures on the night led by Woodard’s 14 points. Boswell recorded 12 points, all in the second half and Jones also had 12.
“Valencia (Boswell) is very important to us and she had some health issues that set her back a bit early on,” said Pietri of Boswell’s second half performance. “She showed in the second half of the game tonight the kind of player that she can be for us and the type we need for her to be for us to have the type of season we want to have.”
Tulsa was led by Robbins’ 21 points and 13 rebounds, while fellow Hurricane senior Tandem Mays had 13 and Dreiling finished with 10.
