MOBILE, Ala. ? Despite shooting just 29 percent from the floor, the University of South Alabama women’s basketball team was able to hold on for a 48-40 Sun Belt Conference victory Sunday afternoon over Denver at the Mitchell Center.
“Denver’s head coach Pam Tanner does a heck of a job,” South Alabama head coach Rick Pietri said. “They guard exceptionally well. At times this season, we have guarded exceptionally well and I think that was the case for us today. I think both teams just knew each others stuff really well and guarded really well, challenging each shot.”
USA (14-6, 5-4 SBC) will now head to Denton, Texas to take on North Texas on Thursday night at 5 p.m. Denver drops to 7-12 overall and 2-6 in Sun Belt action.
Monique Jones led South Alabama with 13 points on the afternoon, while the Pioneers were paced by Alisha Godette’s 14 points and 10 rebounds. USA’s Patriece Brunner was a monster on the glass, picking up a career-best 17 rebounds for the Jags. Of her 17 rebounds, nine came on the offensive end.
“Monique, hit two huge shots for us late in the game,” Pietri said. “In order to tight games some times, you need players to step up and make plays on difficult challenged shot and she did that for us today. I think she gave us the momentum to finish the game. Patriece was an animal on the glass for us tonight, particularly on the offensive glass. When we weren’t hitting shots, she was giving us additional opportunities.
During the first 20 minutes of play, both teams struggled to execute their offense, each suffering a seven minute offensive drought. Denver was the first to suffer the cold spurt missing its first 10 shots from the floor and committing six of its 14 first half turnovers during the stretch. South Alabama was unable to really take advantage of the Pioneer woes only jumping out to a 6-0 lead during that time. Jeanette Tucker gave the Jags the six-point advantage at the 13:40 mark, but that was the last South Alabama basket over the next seven minutes. Abbey Leichliter gave Denver its first points of the game with a jumper with just under 13 minutes to play in the half.
With the scored tied at 6-6, Brunner ended South Alabama’s scoreless streak with an offensive putback at the 6:45 mark. After a Sara Bents (DU) bucket tied the contest back up at eight, Tucker ignited a 9-0 run for the Lady Jags over the next three minutes. Jones gave South Alabama its largest lead of the half at 17-8 with an “old-fashioned” three-point play with just over three minutes left on the clock before halftime. Denver did not roll over the remainder of the period and the Pioneers were able to trim the deficit to 17-14 at the intermission with the final six points.
Both clubs struggled to find the range in the opening period of play, each finishing the half with just seven made field goals. The 17 and 14 points for South Alabama and Denver, respectively, were each season-lows for the first period of play. The Pioneers held a huge advantage on the boards in the first stanza, 23-14.
South Alabama was able to get looks from the outside in the first half, but the Jags were ice cold from behind the arc, missing all 13 of its attempts.
In the second half, Denver pulled to within one (17-16) after a Sara Benham basket with 17 minutes 40 seconds left on the clock, but USA’s Karina Sproal led a run of 10 straight Jaguar points over the next three and a half minutes, recording seven during the spurt, to push the lead out to 27-16. During the run, Jessica Starling knocked down South Alabama’s first three-pointer of the afternoon. Prior to the Starling trey, USA had missed its previous 16 attempts from beyond the arc. Denver kept hanging around and would not go away the rest of the game and after South Alabama pushed the lead back out again to 11 (38-27) on an Amanda Leonard three-pointer from the right win at the 6:11 mark, DU battled back and cut the deficit to as few as two (39-37) after a pair of Godette free throws three minutes later to cap off a 8-1 Pioneer run.
South Alabama’s Jones, however, gave USA the momentum right back when the senior guard nailed a trey of her own on the Lady Jags’ next trip down the floor at the 2:10 mark. South Alabama was able to hit a majority of its attempts from the charity stripe in the final minute and went on to take the eight-point win.
