SAN FRANCISCO ? The South Alabama women’s basketball team used a balance scoring attack and a 16-2 run to open the second half to pick up a 69-56victory over Missouri-Kansas City in the consolation game of the Fifth Annual odwalla Classic hosted by the University of San Francisco.
USA (5-1) will continue its current three-game road trip on Tuesday night when the Lady Jags take on Mercer in Macon, Ga., at 6 p.m. (CT). With the loss, UMKC falls to 3-3 on the young season.
“We played with much more energy on the defensive end in the second half and I think that is what catapulted us to victory,” South Alabama women’s basketball head coach Rick Pietri said. “We were basically trading baskets in the first half and happened to be up three at the break. In the second half, we did a much better job of defending our goal and securing rebounds in the second half. We challenged them in both the post area and perimeter and then made enough shots to spread it out.”
The Lady Jags had five players finish with eight or more points in the victory on Saturday night, led by sophomore guard Shakira Nettles’ 15. Amanda Leonard also finished in double digits with 10 second half points. Nettles also provided the defense for USA in the win, recording a season-high five steals. The Kangaroos were paced by Alysa Klein’s game-high 27 points, 21 of which came in the first half. California native, Chazney Morris also finished in double figures for UMKC with 19 points of her own.
With South Alabama leading 13-9 five minutes into the game, UMKC answered back with six straight points to take the lead at 15-13 with just under the 14 minute mark. Nettles ended the Kangaroo spurt with a three-pointer from the top of the key with just over 12 minutes to go in the half to reclaim the lead. The Nettles trey also ignited a run of eight unanswered points over the next four minutes. Karina Sproal capped off the run with her second three-pointer of the period that put USA up 21-15 with eight minutes, 31 seconds left. Ra’Shawna Sippio later gave USA its largest lead of the half, after the junior forward knocked down a pair of free throws to put South Alabama up by eight (27-19) at the 6:16 mark.
With USA holding the eight-point advantage, UMKC clawed its way back and cut it to one at 31-30 on an Alysa Klein layup with just under three minutes to go. Nettles again had the answer for the Jags as she knocked down two straight buckets to push the lead back out to five. USA held on to the lead the final two and a half minutes and headed into the locker room with a 37-34 advantage. UMKC’s scoring in the first half came mainly from Klein, who led all scorers with 21 points. Of the Kangaroos final 14 points of the opening period of play, 12 came from 6-3 senior post player. Nettles provided the offense for the Lady Jags as the sophomore guard was 5-of-6 from the field for 12 points.
Coming out of the intermission, the Lady Jags took control of the game with a 16-2 run over the first eight minutes of the half. South Alabama did a majority of its damage during the scoring spurt from behind the arc. Amanda Leonard recorded two of the Jags three shots form long distance and Jessica Starling highlighted the run when she converted on a four-point play after being fouled. USA did not allow the Kangaroos to cut the deficit under double figures the rest of the way en route to the 13-point victory.
