BATON ROUGE, La. ? Poor shooting in the first half proved to be too much for the South Alabama women’s basketball team Saturday afternoon as it dropped a 62-58 decision to Southern University at the F.G. Clark Center.
“Credit coach Sandy Pugh and Southern for their play today. They had two weeks off to prepare for this game were ready to play from the tip. That’s a credit to them,” South Alabama head coach Rick Pietri said. “When our players finally decided to get focused and play the right way; we had dug a pretty big hole for ourselves. We got it close enough to give ourselves a chance, but we just couldn’t make enough plays to finish and steal the game. Southern deserved the win and we didn’t.”
USA (6-2) will continue its three-game road swing on Thursday when the Lady Jags travel to take on Memphis at 6 p.m. Southern improves to 2-3 on the year with the win.
Jessica Starling led South Alabama offensively with 17 points, while Shakira Nettles added 11 of her own. Deidra Jackson led Southern with 15 points.
One key stat was from beyond the three-point line where South Alabama was just 7-for-31 from the arc.
In what proved to be the difference in the game, South Alabama came out ice cold in the first half, connecting on just two field goal attempts over the first 10 minutes of the game. Southern took advantage of the Lady Jag’s offensive woes early on draining six of its first seven attempts from the floor. Hannah Kador’s three-pointer from the left wing with 10 minutes, 33 seconds left on the clock gave Southern at 12-point lead (18-6). Two minutes later, Sarda Peterson’s trey and Starling’s put back at the 8:13 mark cut the Jag deficit to 18-11, but USA could not draw any closer.
Tiffany Foster’s running jumper with five minutes. 40 seconds to go stretched Southern’s lead back out to double digits at 23-13. South Alabama continued to struggle to find the range over the remainder of the period as the Lady Jags shot an abysmal 27 percent (10-of-37) from the field, including just 4-of-20 from behind the arc. Southern on the other hand converted on 14 of its 24 attempts from the floor for 58.3 percent shooting.
Starling later narrowed the gap to 25-18 when the senior drove the lane and converted on the old-fashioned three-point play. After Southern answered quickly and grabbed its largest lead of the first half 13 (34-21) on a pair of Aerica Hicks free throws, USA was able to cut into the deficit. Starling drained a trey from the right corner with six seconds left to trim Southern’s advantage to 35-26 heading into the intermission.
In the second half, Jackson kept up her hot shooting and prevented USA from chipping into the Southern advantage early on, scoring the Jaguars first six-points of the half. With 14 minutes, 11 seconds on the clock, Tenisha Brown came up with a loose ball and drove the court for a layup to give Southern its largest lead of the game, 45-31.
After a 30 second time out, the Lady Jags seemed to wake up and turned up the intensity for the remainder of the game. With Southern holding a 51-41 lead with seven minutes to go, Brittney Rutledge stole the ball and laid it off the glass to ignite a 10-3 run for the Lady Jags over the next three minutes. Shaniece Brunner six-foot jumper at the 3:43 mark pulled USA to within three (54-51).
Jamie Floyd’s back-to-back baskets a minute and a half later stretched Southern’s lead back out to 58-51. USA kept battling. Nettles’ three-pointer with less than two minutes to play brought the Lady Jags to within four and Siedah Banks made it a one possession game on South Alabama’s next trip down the floor when Starling found her underneath the basket for a layup. South Alabama could not get the stop it needed on the defensive end and Freda Allen’s put back off a missed shot put Southern up four with 22 seconds left.
Starling converted a pair of free throws with 10.3 second remaining, but Carneta Henderson sealed the victory for Southern with a pair of free throws.
South Alabama shot better from the floor in the second half converting 44 percent of its shots, but it was not enough.
For more information about South Alabama athletics, check back with www.usajaguars.com. Season tickets for all Jaguar athletic events can be purchased by calling (251) 461-1USA (1872).
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