MACON, Ga. ? Behind Monique Jones’ game-high 15 points, the South Alabama women’s basketball team closed out its three-game cross country road trip with a 57-39 victory over Mercer Tuesday night at the University Center.
USA (6-1) will now return home to take on Stetson Saturday evening at 7 p.m. at the Mitchell Center. With the loss the Lady Bears fall to 2-5 on the season.
Georgia native Patriece Brunner playing in her home state also recorded double figures for USA in the win with a career-best 10. The Jag center also pulled down a game-high seven rebounds. Mercer was led offensively by TaShera Lewis’ 10 points.
The Lady Jag bench also came up big in the victory, recording 24 points on the night.
South Alabama got off to a great start in the opening minutes of the game, running off 10 unanswered points in the first six minutes. The Lady Jag defense set the tone early, forcing Mercer to miss its for seven shots. Shaquita Bell ended the Bear offense drought with a jumper in the lane with just over 14 minutes left on the clock. Mercer briefly found its shooting touch over the next several minutes and kept chipping away at the Lady Jag advantage. Gabrielle Essex cut the deficit for the Bears to 15-12 when the junior hit a three-pointer from the left corner at the 9:14 mark.
Again the Jags had the answer with another run, this one a 10-2 spurt over the next five minutes to stretch the lead back out to 11 at 25-14. Jessica Starling capped off the run for South Alabama with back-to-back treys. Later in the half, Karina Sproal gave USA its largest lead of the period with the Melbourne, Australia native nailed the Jags’ fourth three-pointer of the half to put the lead at 34-16 with just under two minutes left. South Alabama headed into the locker room with a 36-20 advantage.
The Lady Jags came out on fire in the opening frame, connecting on 15 of their 32 attempts from the floor for 46.9 percent. Mercer on the other hand, struggled to find its range, hitting just seven of its shots from the field for 26.9 percent.
Jones led all scorers with 11 first half points as the Jag senior was 5-of-8 from the field. The Bears were paced in the first stanza by Lewis and Kourtney Carter, who each recorded six points in the period.
Coming out of the intermission, South Alabama’s Jones stretched out the lead to 20 (40-20) with a pair of buckets the last coming at the 16:31 mark, but those would be the last for the Jags over the next five minutes. Mercer took advantage of USA’s cold stretch and reeled off eight straight points to trim the lead to 40-28 with just under 12 minutes remaining in regulation. Siedah Banks stopped the string of unanswered points for the Bears with a jumper of her own at the 11:40 mark to give USA a 42-28 advantage. That was as close as the Bears got the rest of the way; as despite turning the ball over down the stretch, the Lady Jags went on to take the 18-point win.
