MOBILE, Ala. ? On the strength of 29 forced turnovers and a game-high 29 points from the conference player of the year Chrissy Givens, Middle Tennessee captured a 93-58 Sun Belt Conference victory over the South Alabama women's basketball team Thursday night at the Mitchell Center.
“We clearly didn’t execute what we wanted to do tonight,” said South Alabama women’s basketball head coach Rick Pietri. “The speed and quickness in which Middle Tennessee reacts is just hard to duplicate in practice. When things stopped going our way, we weren’t as sharp or crisp as we needed to be because we got into our funk mode. Right now, we don’t have the mental toughness to be successful for the long haul and we’ve got to find that. You have to give credit to Middle Tennessee because they do have tremendous athleticism and great players. They also have players who can really shoot the ball and stretch the defense.”
The Lady Raiders improve to 7-3 on the season and 1-0 in SBC action with the win, while the Jags fall to 5-5 and 0-1 SBC. USA will next begin a three-game road swing at Western Kentucky Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m. at E.A. Diddle Arena.
The Lady Jags came out of the gate in the first half and jumped out to an early 13-4 lead. Monique Jones put the Jags up by nine with just over 14 minutes to play after back-to-back buckets. From that point on, the Lady Raiders turned up the pressure defensively and over the next five minutes forced 10 Jaguar turnovers. Over that same stretch, Givens sparked a 16-0 run for Middle Tennessee with one of her four steals and a layup. Valencia Boswell ended the USA drought with a bucket at the 9:13 mark to cut the deficit to 20-15. With South Alabama still trailing by six (25-19) with seven minutes, 31 seconds remaining in the opening half, the Lady Raiders erupted for another huge run, closing the period on a 23-4 spurt. The Middle Tennessee run was highlighted by three straight three-pointers, two of which came from freshman Brandi Brown. USA headed into the locker room down 48-23.
In the first half, Middle Tennessee forced 20 Jaguar turnovers, aided by 10 steals.
Coming out of the intermission, South Alabama quickly trimmed the deficit to 13 (48-35) with 12 unanswered points within the first three-and-a-half minutes of the second period. Whitney Woodard, who had been held scoreless in the first frame, ignited the Jaguar run with seven straight points, but Givens again had the answer for the Lady Raiders, dropping in one of her 14 field goals on the night. Middle Tennessee pushed the margin back out to 20 after a Starr Orr steal and fast-break layup at the 15:57 mark. South Alabama got only as close as 18 the rest of the way, before falling 93-58.
Jones led USA with 18 points on the evening on 7-of-14 shooting, while Givens was one of four players in double figures for Middle Tennessee. Brown was right behind Givens with 17 points, Amber Holt with 16 and Krystle Horton with 10. Brown was on fire from long range, knocking down five of her eight opportunities from behind the arc.
The 93 points scored by Middle Tennessee on the night were the most-ever scored by a team in the Mitchell Center and the 35 point loss was the worst loss at home since the 1999-2000 season, when USA fell 77-37 to Louisiana Tech.
