MOBILE, Ala. ? The University of South Alabama women’s basketball team held a 15 point lead at halftime, but cold shooting in the second half proved to be the undoing for the Lady Jags as they fell 61-56 to Louisiana-Monroe Wednesday night at the Mitchell Center.
The Jags fall to 9-12 on the season and 3-7 in the Sun Belt with the loss, while the Warhawks improve to 14-6 overall and 4-5 in the SBC. USA will continue its brief homestand when the Lady Jags host North Texas on Sunday at 3:45 p.m.
“The two different halves that we had tonight are just indicative of the way we have played this season,” said South Alabama women’s basketball head coach Rick Pietri. “We have not demonstrated to this point that we have the mental toughness to play a full 40-minute basketball game. Sometimes, playing for 35 or 30 minutes is good enough to get you the win, but tonight it clearly wasn’t. We played about as well as we can in the first half and them Louisiana-Monroe came out with amped up energy in the second half and we just could not respond to it.”
Both teams came out struggling during the first few minutes of the game. With ULM holding an early two-point lead, Whitney Woodard ignited a 12-3 Jaguar burst over the next three minutes. The USA run was aided by the cold shooting of the Warhawks, as they started out hitting just one of their first 11 shots from the field. Louisiana-Monroe found its shooting touch at the 13:40 mark of the opening half and hit three straight buckets to close the gap to 12-11 on a Courtney Carter fast break layup with less than 13 minutes to play in the period. Monique Jones nailed two consecutive baskets of her own over the next minute to push the USA lead back out to six at 17-11. After ULM narrowed the deficit to one again (17-16) on a Regena Jackson trey from the top of the key with just under 10 minutes to go, Amanda Leonard answered right back with five straight points to and Valencia Boswell put South Alabama up 23-16 when she sank one of two attempts from the charity stripe.
With the Jaguar women holding a 23-18 lead with just under eight minutes remaining in the first stanza, Woodard led another USA run, this time scoring six of the Jags next nine points. The Memphis, Tenn., native capped off the 9-0 spurt with a pair of free throws at the 3:52 mark. Two more free throw from Boswell gave the Jags their largest lead of the night at 18 (40-22) with one minute, 17 seconds left. LaJenna Howard drained a three-pointer on ULM’s next trip down the floor to cut the South Alabama advantage to 40-25.
For the half, USA recorded its best offensive shooting of the year, knocking down 61.9 percent of its shots. Woodard also led all scorers in the first half with 16 points. The 40 points were also the most points scored by the Jags since recording 33 in the first half against the College of Charleston (Nov. 24) in the opening round of the LIU Thanksgiving Classic.
The second half would prove to be the downfall for the USA. After notching one of the best offensive performances in the first period of play, USA came out of the locker room ice cold. The Lady Jags managed to convert on only one of their first 10 shots from the floor in the second half. Louisiana-Monroe took advantage of the Jaguar misfires and opened the final period of play with a 12-0 run over the first five minutes to close the margin to 40-37. Shaniece Brunner finally ended the ULM run with a six-foot jumper in the middle of the lane with just over 14 minutes to play. After holding the deficit at around the three-point margin over the next five minutes, Shannon Lloyd gave the Warhawks their first lead since the opening basket of the game when the junior center drained a jumper from the free throw line at the 8:40 mark. The two clubs traded points over the next three minutes. Woodard brought USA to within one (51-50) with four minutes, 29 seconds left on the clock, but Louisiana-Monroe pushed across six of the next seven points to stretch its lead out to 57-51 on a Nedra Winston basket at the 3:21 mark.
Jones started a 5-0 run for USA with just over two minutes remaining in regulation when she stole the ball from ULM’s Ebony Williams and laid it off the glass. Lloyd, however hit a turnaround jumper with under a minute to play and Howard sank both of her free throws to end the Jaguar rally and give the Warhawks the five-point victory.
Woodard led USA in scoring with 21 points, while Leonard added a season-high 10 for the Jags. ULM was led by Howard’s 21 points and Jackson and Lloyd also finished in double figures with 15 points each.
The key stat of the night was South Alabama from the floor in the second half. USA managed to only hit five of its 24 attempts for 20.8 percent. The Lady Jags also struggled from the charity stripe, going just 6-of-11 in the second period.
NOTE: USA’s Whitney Woodard moved into 14th place on the all-time career scoring chart, passing former Lady Jag Chanta Powell. Woodard now has 1111 points for her career.
