MOBILE, Ala. ? Despite a cold shooting performance, the University of South Alabama women’s basketball team held on for a 42-34 victory over Tulsa Saturday evening at the Mitchell Center to improve to 4-0 on the season.
The Lady Jags will next begin a three-game road swing when South Alabama participates in the odwalla Classic in San Francisco, Calif. USA will open tournament play on Thursday, Nov. 23 when it takes on Villanova. With the loss, Tulsa falls to 0-3 on the year.
Patriece Brunner and Shakira Nettles led the Jaguar women with nine points each, while Tulsa was paced by Larrissa Williams’ 10 points and game-high 16 rebounds.
As a team, USA held Tulsa to just 18 percent shooting in the eight-point win, while the Jags were not much better, shooting a season-low 21.7 percent from the field.
The Golden Hurricane held a huge advantage on the class out-rebounding South Alabama 64-45. The 64 rebounds also tied a school record for Tulsa and set a new Mitchell Center record.
Neither team was able to do anything from beyond the arc as Tulsa was just 1-of-16 from long range, while South Alabama was only able to knock down three of its 25 attempts.
In the opening half, both clubs struggled to find the bottom of the net offensively, combining to hit just 11 field goals. South Alabama jumped out to a quick 8-2 lead in first few minutes of the period, but then began to struggle from the floor. After hitting four of their first 10 attempts, the Jags were an abysmal 2-of-18 for the remainder of the first half. Tulsa was unable to take advantage of the Jaguar shooting woes and aided the South Alabama cause by sending USA to the charity stripe 17 times in the first stanza. The Jags were able to convert nine of those opportunities. Shakira Nettles gave USA its largest lead of the opening half when the Jag sophomore hit one of her two shots from the foul line with two minutes, 33 seconds to go before the intermission. USA headed into the locker room with a 22-12 lead.
For the first half, USA was just 6-of-28 from the floor fro 23.3 percent, while Tulsa was just as cold, connecting on just five of its 32 attempts for 15.6 percent.
The 12 points by Tulsa also set a new school low mark for points in a half for the Golden Hurricane.
South Alabama came out in the second half and pushed its advantage out to 14 points (26-12) after back-to-back buckets at the 17:08 mark from Monique Jones and Ra’Shawna Sippio. USA maintained its double-digit lead over the next several minutes. After a Jones jumper with 11 minutes, 19 seconds left in regulation put USA up 34-21, Williams ignited a run of seven unanswered points for the Golden Hurricane over the next three minutes. TU’s Tatum Beer later cut the deficit to six (34-28) at the 7:32 mark when the freshman guard stepped to the line and hit one of her two attempts. Brunner ended the run 30 seconds later with a pair of free throws. Tulsa again trimmed the Jaguar lead to six with just over a minute left, but that was as close as the Golden Hurricane got as USA held on for the 42-34 victory.
