DELAND, Fla. ? Behind a tenacious defensive effort in the second half and 32 combined points from Whitney Woodard and Raena Ellis, the South Alabama women’s basketball team rallied from an 11-point halftime deficit Thursday night to defeat Stetson, 57-50 at the Edmund Center.
With the win, South Alabama evens its record to 6-6 overall, while the Hatters fall to 1-10 on the season. USA will now break for the holidays before returning to the road and Sun Belt Conference play against Arkansas State on Dec. 29 at 7:05 p.m.
“We didn’t come into here tonight with the right energy to start the game and it affected our focus on shooting and our energy on defense,” said South Alabama women’s basketball head coach Rick Pietri. “We finally found a group at the end of the first half, who while they were hitting shots offensively, they were guarding well. We started that group in the second half and they gave us great defensive energy. Even though we struggled to score, we weren’t giving up anything. Ultimately, we crawled back into it and once we were able to get ahead, we battled and finished the game. This win is big for us at this time.”
During the first 12 minutes of the game, the Lady Jags had their chances but could only knock down three of their first 16 shots from the floor. Stetson over that same stretch used USA’s offensive struggles to its advantage, jumping out to a 14 point lead at 21-7 on a Shayna Swinson jumper at the 8:19 mark. While South Alabama struggled offensively, the host Hatters came out and sank nine of their first 19 shots from the field. Amanda Leonard cut the deficit to single digits (21-12) with a three-pointer with five minutes, 24 seconds remaining before the half, but Prue Kenny answered right back for Stetson with a trey of her own on the Hatters next trip down floor. The Hatters led 26-15 at the intermission.
The 15 points by the Jags was the lowest point total for USA in the first half this season. South Alabama was just 6-of-33 (18.2%) from the field in the opening frame and Leonard was the lone Jag to record more than one made field goal. Vlendy Roldan led Stetson with eight first half points.
In the second half, South Alabama began to chip away at the Lady Hatter lead by turning up the energy on the defensive end of the court. Raena Ellis and Whitney Woodard led the rally for the Jaguar women combining to lead a 10-0 run over the first 10 minutes of the half. Woodard cut the deficit to one at 26-25 with a trey from the top of the key and a pair of free throws with 11 minutes to go. After starting the second half out missing their first 10 shots from the floor, the Hatters finally got on the scoreboard again with back-to-back buckets from Jamie Nesbit and Kenny to expand the Stetson advantage back out to 30-25. Woodard again kept the Jags close two more baskets and Ellis tied the contest up 32-32 with six minutes, 19 seconds remaining in regulation. Ellis later gave USA its first lead of the night with her second straight trey, this one coming with just under five minutes to play. The Jag senior then drained her third trey of the half to give South Alabama its largest lead of the night at 41-36 with one minute, 23 seconds remaining but Janene Maclin tied the game back up at 41-41 with five straight points for Stetson with 36 seconds left. With 10 seconds remaining, Ellis was fouled and calmly stepped to the line and drained both free throws. Stetson then came down the court and with time winding down, Maclin’s off-balanced shot dropped in at the buzzer after rolling around the rim.
In the extra session, the Jags scored the first five points with the last three coming on Woodard’s second shot from long range on the night at the 3:22 mark. The Hatters were only able to get as close as three points the rest of the way and the Jags hit their free throws down the stretch and went on to take the 57-50 victory. During the final 1:25, USA went 7-for-7 from the charity stripe.
Woodard and Ellis paced the Jaguar offense on the night with 18 and 14 points, respectively. All but two of the duos points came after the first half intermission. Nesbit led the Hatters with 11 points and Maclin chipped in with nine.
