MOBILE, Ala. ? The University of South Alabama women’s basketball continued its winning ways Thursday night with a 57-39 victory over Southern University at the Mitchell Center. The win also marked the sixth time in 10 games this season that the Lady Jags did not trail.
USA (9-1) will return to action when it host in-state foe Troy on Wednesday (Dec. 19) to begin Sun Belt Conference play. Southern falls to 1-6 on the season with the loss.
“First off, we’re happy to be 9-1,” South Alabama head coach Rick Pietri said. “We did not execute well offensively in the first half and you have to give Southern some credit for that. We didn’t manage their zone well in the first half, but did a much better job of managing it in the second half. We got better looks at the goal and were able to get some offensive rebounds and put backs.”
“Defensively, we did what we had to do,” Pietri added of his team’s performance. “The only thing that disappointed me was that we gave up too many offensive rebounds. We made Southern shoot a difficult shot at the beginning of the possession, but allowed them to get too many second opportunities. We basically played with the right and proper energy for the most sustained time the final five minutes of the game and were able to pull away.”
Patriece Brunner led the way for South Alabama with a career-high 11 points. Brunner also recorded 11 rebounds to give the Jag senior her first double-double of the season. Hanah Kador paced Southern with 10 points in the loss, while Freda Allen led all players with 18 rebounds.
Both clubs struggled to find the range in the opening half of play as neither was able to shot over 24 percent. USA was just 5-of-21 (23.8 percent) from the floor during the opening 20 minutes of play, while Southern was 5-of-32 from the field for 15.6 percent. The Lady Jags jumped out to a quick 8-0 lead during the first five minutes of play. During that stretch, Southern missed its first eight attempts and turned the ball over three times. Courtney Scott finally put Southern on the board with a running one-hander at the 14:52 mark. After Nikki Williamson cut the Lady Jag lead to four a minute later, the USA defense forced Southern into another drought as the Jaguars missed its next nine field goals. South Alabama took advantage of the SU offensive woes, reeling off seven straight points over the next six minutes. Jessica Starling led the USA run, recording five of the seven points. Deidra Jackson finally snapped the Southern offensive drought with when she hit one of two free throw attempts.
It was then South Alabama’s turn to go cold as the Jags did not record a field goal the final nine minutes, 52 seconds of the half. USA’s only points during the remainder of the first stanza came at the charity stripe. Williamson trimmed the South Alabama lead to 19-12 just before the half when the Southern point guard hit a jumper 35 seconds before the intermission.
Freda Allen’s jumper with just under two minutes played in the second half brought Southern to within five (21-16), its smallest deficits since the opening minutes of the game, but Monique Jones had the answer for USA and started an 11-3 run over the next four minutes to push the lead back out to 32-19 with just over 13 minutes to play. Starling gave the Lady Jags the 14-point lead with a trey of her own.
Southern’s Kador led a run of seven unanswered points for the Jaguars over the next two and a half minutes to again bring SU to within seven (32-25) with 10 minutes, 25 seconds left on the clock. Kador nailed a three-pointer three feet beyond the arc at the 10:50 mark and then intercepted a South Alabama pass and drove the floor for a lay up a few seconds later. That was as close as Southern was able to get the rest of the way, as Brunner put the Lady Jags back up by double figures (40-27) with back-to-back baskets with just under seven minutes to play. USA went on to take the 18-point victory.
South Alabama did a much better job from the field in the second period of play, hitting 14 of its 34 attempts for 41.2 percent. Southern was just 7-of-28 in the second stanza for 25 percent.
