BOX SCORES
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. - The University of South Alabama women's basketball team (15-14) fell 83-68 to top-seeded Western Kentucky (23-5) Saturday afternoon in the quarterfinal round of the 2006 Aeropostale Sun Belt Conference Tournament at the Murphy Center.
“I was real proud of our team’s effort in the first half," said South Alabama women's basketball women's basketball head coach Rick Pietri. "I thought, for the most part, not totally but for the most part, we did what we needed to do to compete in the game. In the second half they just hit a different gear. They started taking the ball from us. There was a segment of about 5-to-7 minutes where they just functioned at a different gear than we did. We were just unable to recover. In the first half they got out on us but we were able to recover from that. We were not able to recover in the second half once they hit that next gear. That leaves us with the results that we have.”
The Lady Jags came out on fire from the three-point arc to begin the game, connecting on their first four attempts from long range. After back-to-back treys from both Ashley Gamble and Raena Ellis, USA held the early advantage at 12-7 with just over 17 minutes remaining in the opening half. WKU's all-conference player Tiffany Porter-Talbert knotted the contest back up at 12-12 with a basket at the 16:25 mark. After the two clubs exchanged baskets, the Lady Toppers used a 13-1 run over the next five-plus minutes to jump out to a 27-15 lead. Whitney Woodard ended the WKU scoring spurt with a driving lay up with nine minutes, 43 seconds left on the clock in the first stanza.
Woodard's lay up also ignited a 14-2 Jag run and the Memphis, Tenn., native capped off the run when she found Samantha McDole cutting to the basket for an uncontested lay up at the 3:15 mark to erase the 12 point deficit and tie the contest up at 29-29. USA reclaimed the lead (35-33) again when Woodard again sank one of her six first half field goals with less than a minute to play in the period. WKU's Tiffany Zaragoza, however, was fouled with seven seconds remaining and hit both opportunities at the charity stripe to send the two teams into the locker room all square at 35-35.
USA was led by Woodard in the first period, who had 14 points to lead all scorers. The Lady Jags also connected on 13 of its 25 opportunities from the field, for a blistering 52 percent.
With the Hilltoppers holding a one point advantage at 43-42 with just under 16 minutes to go in the second half, Western Kentucky reeled off a 16-2 run to stretch its lead out to 59-44. Krystal Kelly started the run with a bucket at the 15:39 mark and Ashley Butler capped off the spurt with a lay up and bonus shot four minutes later. Over that same stretch USA was only able to connect on one of its five shots from the floor and turned the ball over four times as well. Porter-Talbert later gave WKU its largest lead of the game at 28 (77-49) when she drove for a baseline lay up with five minutes, 13 seconds to play. South Alabama was able to narrow the gap to 15, the final margin of victory for the Lady Toppers.
One key to the game was from behind the arc. Western Kentucky, not known for its three-point shooting, connected on seven of its 17 attempts from three point range for 42 percent. WKU was just 1-of-10 from long range in the first meeting this season.
Another important area in the stat column was in the turnover department. After committing just six in the first half, South Alabama turned the ball over 16 times in the second half to finish with 22 for the game.
Woodard led all scorers with 26 points. Ashley Gamble was also in double figures with 12, while Williams, playing in her last game as a Lady Jag recorded 10. Zaragoza led four Lady Toppers in double figures with 22 points.
The Hilltoppers will now take on the winner of the No. 2 seed Denver (West Division)/No. 3 seed Florida International (East Division) on Monday at 1:30 p.m. in the semifinals.
