MOBILE, Ala. ? With 8.1 seconds remaining on the clock in regulation, junior guard Monique Jones sank a pair of free throws to lift the University of South Alabama women’s basketball team to a 60-59 victory over Southern Illinois Tuesday night at the Mitchell Center.
“I just tried to keep my composure when I stepped to the free throw line,” said Jones about the clutch free throws. “I just want to do what I have to help the team.”
USA evens its record to 4-4 on the season with the win, while the Salukis fall to 3-5. The Lady Jags will next head to Baton Rouge, La., to take on Southern University Saturday at 3 p.m.
“We have had problems responding to big blows from other teams this season,” said South Alabama women’s basketball head coach Rick Pietri. “Tonight we got off the canvas after taking a big punch, figuratively speaking, and got back up and fought back. This is a huge guerilla off out back to know that we can fight back when we are behind and things aren’t going our way and do it against a quality team.”
In the first half, the Lady Jags came out hot offensively, jumping out to a quick seven point lead with just under four minutes played. Whitney Woodard gave the Jaguar women the 10-3 lead with her first of seven field goals on the night. SIU responded right back with seven straight points and Debbie Burris knocked down a three-pointer at the 12:39 mark to tie the contest up at 10-10. USA again stretched its lead back out and Shaniece Brunner gave the Jags its largest lead of the first half, 29-21, with a jumper with three minutes, 39 seconds remaining in the first stanza. As they had done earlier, the Salukis answered again and closed the half on an 8-0 run. A Cortney Sales jumper with 38 seconds remaining in the first period of play tied the game up again at 29-29.
Coming out of the intermission, the Jags looked to take control from the outset and opened the second half on a 12-4 run to take a 41-33 lead at the 16:20 mark. Valencia Boswell’s running jumper capped the Jaguar run. With USA seeming to be in complete control, the Lady Jags offense went cold. Over the next eight minutes, South Alabama was unable to record a point and during that stretch, the Salukis took advantage, reeling off a 20-0 run that gave Southern Illinois a 53-41 advantage. The SIU run was led by Jasmine Gibson, who recorded eight of her team-high 16 points in the Saluki scoring spurt. Shakira Nettles ended the Jaguar drought with a baseline jumper at the 8:20 mark. Over the next four minutes, Woodard took over and led the charge, scoring the next 11 South Alabama points. The Memphis, Tenn., native cut the USA deficit to 57-54 with four minutes, 44 seconds with another jumper. Valencia Boswell later converted on one of her two opportunities from the charity stripe to cut the deficit to one (59-58) with one minute, 34 seconds remaining.
With the Jags needing to get a defensive stop with under a minute remaining, Southern Illinois looked as if they had sealed the victory. Dana Olsen grabbed a huge offensive rebound for SIU after a Burris miss and with USA forced to foul, the Jags sent Olsen to the line with 10 seconds remaining for a one-and-one opportunity. Olsen missed the front end, but Jayme Sweere came up with the rebound and was fouled as well. Sweere also missed her front end opportunity, but this time Jones came down with the defensive board for the Jags and on the play, the Ferriday, La., native was fouled. Jones then calmly stepped to the line and drained both her attempts from the charity stripe to put South Alabama up 60-59. On the ensuing play, Sweere dribbled the ball down court and but up a jumper with three seconds remaining, but Boswell deflected the shot and Tiffany Sanders came down with the loss ball to seal the victory.
“We came into this game talking about fighting through adversity and we just had to fight back tonight,” said Woodard about the comeback victory.
Woodard led all scorers with 19 points, while Gibson and Moore finished the night with 16 and 14 points, respectively.
