MOBILE, Ala. ? Behind a combined 46 points from Whitney Woodard and Monique Jones, the University of South Alabama women’s basketball team captured a 92-71 victory over Belhaven College (2-2) Monday night at the Mitchell Center.
USA (2-1) will next travel to the “Big Apple” to participate in the LIU Turkey Classic Nov. 24-25. The Jags will open up tournament action against the College of Charleston on Friday at 3 p.m. (Central).
“Overall we didn’t defend well tonight,” said South Alabama women’s basketball head coach Rick Pietri. “We let our fundamentals go and got overly aggressive at times for no reason. That’s just not paying attention to detail. You could since our lack of concentration early by the number of easy layups we missed in the first five minutes. We were not giving Belhaven the proper amount of respect and that is really disappointing. In the second half we did a better job of defending and once we came to the realization that we had to compete, we did a better job in the half court. There were times tonight were we looked pretty good and times tonight were we didn’t look good at all. We need to be consistent throughout.”
In the opening period of play with South Alabama holding an 11-9 lead after a Valencia Boswell jumper at the 15:37 mark, the visiting Blazers reeled off a 13-2 run over the next six minutes to take a nine point lead at 22-13. Belhaven over that stretch made the Lady Jags pay at the free throw line, hitting nine of 10 opportunities from the charity stripe. Shaniece Brunner ended the Lady Blazer spurt with a driving lay up with eight minutes, 47 seconds remaining in the opening half. The Brunner basket also ignited a 12-2 for the Lady Jags. Monique Jones cut the deficit to two (24-22) with a long range three at the 7:20 mark and Whitney Woodard gave the Jags the lead again twenty seconds later when she converted an old fashioned three-point play, converting her lay up and bonus foul shot. Over the next four minutes, the two clubs went back-and-forth exchanging the lead. With Belhaven holding a 35-33 advantage with three minutes, 49 seconds to play in the half, USA closed the opening period with a 15-4 run to take a nine point lead (48-39) into the lockerroom. True freshman Shakira Nettles highlighted the first half when she drove the length of the court and dropped in a finger roll layup right at the buzzer. The South Alabama offense was led in the first stanza by Jones’ 20 first half points.
Coming out of the intermission, USA did not allow the visitors to climb any closer. Woodard gave the Lady Jags a 56-44 lead at the 16:22 mark after knocking down back-to-back jumpers. A basket from Samantha Kirkwood at the 13:11 mark cut the Belhaven deficit to seven (60-53), but that was as close as the Blazers would get the rest of the way as the Jaguar women quickly pushed the lead back out to double figures after four straight points again from Woodard. USA maintained the double digit lead the rest of the way and eventually led by as many as 22 (90-68) with just under a minute to play before taking the 92-71 victory.
South Alabama was led by Woodard’s game-high 24 points and Jones’ 22 points. Woodard also had 10 rebounds for her second double-double of the season. The Jag senior was a blistering 14-of-16 from the charity stripe on the night in just 22 minutes of action. Belhaven placed three players in double figures as well, led by Lindsey Dukes’ 17 points.
The 92 point by the Lady Jags is a season high and the most points scored in a regular season game by USA since scoring 100 against Texas-Pan American back during the 1994-95 season. The point total also tops the most points ever scored by the Lady Jags in the Mitchell Center.
