DENVER, Colo. ? The University of South Alabama women’s basketball team registered one of its worst offensive performances of the season, shooting just 26 percent from the floor Saturday afternoon, as the Lady Jags fell 54-34 to Denver at Magness Arena.
“Not only is it hard to win a game when you shoot 26 percent from the floor, but it is also tough when you just don’t play with any mental toughness,” said South Alabama women’s basketball head coach Rick Pietri. “At half time we were only down seven points, having played miserably on offense, but to start the second half and knowing what was at stake, we just had no life and we lost the game in the first five minutes.”
With the loss, South Alabama falls one game under .500 at 9-10 and 3-6 in the Sun Belt. The Pioneers improve to 11-7 overall and 6-3 in league play with the win and remain undefeated at home. USA will return to action Wednesday night when it hosts Louisiana-Monroe. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. at the Mitchell Center.
Both teams came out struggling offensively over the first ten minutes of play. With the Pioneers holding an 8-7 advantage with just over 10 minutes remaining in the opening half, Sara Benham ignited a 10-0 Denver run. Brianna Culberson drained a trey from the right corner to cap off the Pioneer spurt three minutes later. USA’s Shaniece Brunner ended a stretch of 15 straight missed shots for the Jags when she hit a three-pointer of her own with less than six minutes to play in the half. Whitney Woodard later found Monique Jones racing down court for a layup to cut the deficit to 18-14 at the 4:37 mark. That was the last points for USA in the half though as its offensive struggles continued. Denver went on to take a 22-14 lead at the break.
The 14 points was a season-low for points in a half by South Alabama, erasing the previous low of 15 set against Stetson earlier this season. For the first period of play, USA was just 6-of-29 for 20.7 percent.
In the second half, the Pioneers came out of the locker room and hit four of their first five shots from the floor to jump out to a 32-14 lead. The 10-0 Denver run over the first four minutes of the second stanza was aided again by the Jags continued offensive woes. USA missed its first six shots of the half and turned the ball over three times during that stretch. Raena Ellis finally ended the Jaguar drought with an eight-foot jumper from the left baseline at the 15:25 mark and Jones recorded back-to-back buckets on USA’s next two trips down floor to cut the margin to 32-20 with 14 minutes, 41 seconds to go in the game. Denver, however, did not allow the Jaguar women to get any closer the rest of the way and eventually went on to lead by as many as 22 on two occasions before taking the 54-34 victory.
For the game, USA was just 15-fore-57 for 26.3 percent from the floor, including just 2-of-13 from behind the arc. Denver on the other hand was 20-for-52 (38.8 percent) and 6-for-14 from long range.
Alisha Godette led the way for the Pioneers with 12 points, all in the second half, while Benham also finished in double figures with 10. Jones was the leading scorer on the afternoon for South Alabama with nine points.
The 34 points for USA was a season-low and is the fewest points scored by the Jaguars in a conference game since scoring 39 last season at home versus North Texas to end the regular season. It is also the fewest points scored in a road game since only recording 29 at Oregon State last year as well.
