LITTLE ROCK, Ark. ? The South Alabama women’s basketball team’s second half surge was not enough as the Lady Jags fell 67-58 Saturday afternoon at the Jack Stephens Center on the Lady Trojan campus.

USA (12-6, 3-4 SBC) will now return home to begin a brief two-game homestand Wednesday night when the Lady Jags take on Louisiana-Lafayette at 7 p.m. at the Mitchell Center.  With the win, UALR maintains its lead in West Division and improves to 13-5 overall and 5-2 in league play.

South Alabama held the early advantage jumping out to a five point lead on three occasions, but with the Lady Jags leading 11-8, Hughes came off the bench for the Lady Trojans to start a 15-0 run for UALR over the next six minutes.  Hughes gave UALR its first lead of the afternoon when the senior converted on an “old-fashioned” three-point play at the 13:13 mark and recorded 11 of the Trojan points.  During the run, South Alabama didn’t help its cause during that stretch as the Jags missed six straight shots and turned the ball over four times over the next six-plus minutes.  Anshel Cooper put UALR up 23-11 with a basket of her own in the lane at the 7:46 mark.  Karina Sproal finally broke the Lady Jags’ slump and put USA back on the scoreboard with a trey from the top of the key on South Alabama’s next trip down court. 

After the Sproal bucket, however, the Jags suffered their second scoreless drought over the next six minutes and the Trojans expanded its lead out to as many as 16 on two occasions.  The Lady Jags were able to knock down a pair of treys in the final minute of play to cut the deficit to 33-20, but after a missed Jessica Brown jumper in the final seconds, Hughes was not blocked out and put back the rebound just before horn to send UALR into the locker room with a 35-20 advantage.

Hughes, who came into the game averaging 17.3 ppg in conference play, had her average in the first 20 minutes of action to lead all scorers.  Hughes was 7-of-10 from the floor and converted all three of her attempts at the free throw line in the first half.  USA was paced by Tucker’s eight points in the first stanza.  After hitting five of their first 10 shots from the field in the first six minutes of the game, South Alabama was just three for its next 14 for the remainder of the period.

In the second half, the Lady Jags were able to trim the Trojan lead to 35-25 within the first minute and a half of the period after a Jones three-pointer and a Patriece Brunner layup at the 18:29 mark, but Hughes kept up her hot shooting, knocking down three-straight treys of her own to put UALR back up 44-29.  After the Hughes three-pointer, South Alabama finally showed some life, responding with a 15-4 run of their own over the next five minutes.  The Jaguar run was led by eight points from Tucker and Sproal capped off the run and cut the deficit to four (48-44) with another three-pointer at the 11:46 mark.  UALR pushed its lead back out to double figures (54-44) with six quick points of its own, but USA kept battling and after back-to-back treys from Sproal and Shakira Nettles with under nine minutes left, the Jaguar women cut the deficit to four again at 54-50. 

After again going on to trail by double digits, the Lady Jags kept battling and got as close as six late in the game (62-56) but could not draw any closer as the Trojans went on to take the 67-58 victory.