MOBILE, Ala. ? The South Alabama women’s basketball team bounced back Saturday afternoon with a 65-39 Sun Belt Conference victory over Florida Atlantic at the Mitchell Center.
“I’m really pleased with how well we bounced back after Thursday night,” South Alabama head coach Rick Pietri said. “Less than 48 hours after a very disappointing finish, our whole team really came juiced and ready to play. I’m really proud of our team. It was a complete effort by everyone.”
USA (17-9, 8-7 SBC) will now head to Bowling Green, Ky., to take on Western Kentucky Wednesday night at 7 p.m. Florida Atlantic drops to 5-18 overall and 1-13 in league play with the loss.
Shakira Nettles led South Alabama with 15 points on 7-of-11 shooting, while Jeanette Tucker (12) and Brittney Rutledge also recorded double digits for USA in the win. Patriece Brunner also finished with eight points and a team-high nine rebounds for the Jaguar women. Florida Atlantic’s Breana Cox paced the Owls with a game-high 17 points, while the Lady Jag defense held FAU’s Jaimie Givens scoreless. Givens entered the contest, Florida Atlantic’s second leading scorer.
The two key stats of the game were in the points off turnover category and in the second half field goal percentage for the Owls. USA was able to get 24 points off 22 FAU turnovers, compared to the Owls seven points off Jag miscues.
“The points off turnovers were critical because they kept the momentum in our favor throughout the game,” Pietri said. “We were able to get a lot of tipped balls and loose balls translating into transition offense for us that got us a lot of points.
The Lady Jag defense also held Florida Atlantic to just 6-of-29 shooting in the second period of play for 27.3 percent shooting.
With South Alabama holding a one-point advantage (7-6) with under 13 minutes to go in the opening half, The Lady Jags pushed their lead out to double digits (20-10), courtesy of a 13-4 Lady Jag run. Tucker capped off the scoring spurt for the Jags when the senior guard drove the lane and laid the ball off the glass with eight minutes, 15 seconds left before the intermission. Florida Atlantic came right back though and quickly cut the deficit to three with a 9-2 run of its own over the next two minutes. Mercedes Thompson drained a three-pointer at the 6:14 mark to pull the Owls to within 22-19.
On USA’s next possession down floor, Brunner ignited a run of 12 unanswered points for the Lady Jags over the next four minutes to give South Alabama a 15-point advantage at 34-19. Nettles capped off the USA run with a bucket with just under two minutes to go in the period. Tucker continued her excellent play in the first 20 minutes of action with a jumper with under a minute to go to send the Jags into the locker room with a 38-23 lead.
After exchanging baskets to open the second half, it was Nettles turn to provide the spark, starting a 13-5 run for South Alabama to break the game open for good. The Jag sophomore got things going with back-to-back buckets at the 17 minute mark and then later finished off the run with another jumper with just under 10 minutes left in the game to put USA up by 23 (53-30). During the seven minute span, Florida Atlantic didn’t help its cause as the Owls recorded just one field goal on 10 attempts and also turned the ball over four times. The Lady Jags kept up the defensive pressure the rest of the way and didn’t allow FAU to any closer the rest of the way, en route to the 26-point victory.
