MIAMI ? After a tight contest for much of the game, the South Alabama women’s basketball team was able to close strong and dominate down the stretch Saturday night to pick up a huge 62-47 Sun Belt Conference victory over Florida International at Pharmed Arena. The Lady Jags closed the game on a 25-5 run during the final 11 minutes. With the victory and Louisiana-Monroe’s loss to UALR, South Alabama now clinches the fifth seed in this year’s SBC tourney.
“Our team did a tremendous job of closing out strong tonight,” South Alabama head coach Rick Pietri said. “It was a struggle and a war, figuratively speaking, for three-quarters of the game. From the under eight minute mark on, our team really executed well from an offensive standpoint and did what we needed to do on the defensive end of the floor. I’m really pleased for Mo (Monique Jones) for her to play as well as she did in her final regular season game and step up on both ends of the floor.”
USA (19-10, 10-8 SBC) will now host either Troy or Louisiana-Lafayette in the opening round of the 2008 Sun Belt Conference Tournament on Wednesday, March 5, at 7 p.m. Tickets for Wednesday’s game are scheduled to go on sale Monday, March 3, at 10 a.m. at the USA Mitchell Center Ticket Office. All seats are $7 and the seating is general admission.
With the loss, Florida International falls to 12-17 on the season and an 8-10 mark in Sun Belt play. The Golden Panthers also drop back into the seventh seed in next week’s tournament.
Monique Jones led all scorers on the night with 15 points on 6-of-11 shooting, while Shakira Nettles (15) and Jessica Starling also finished the evening in double digits. FIU was paced by Jasmine Jenkins’ 10 points in the loss.
The Lady Jags came out and jumped out to an early 10-6 lead six minutes into the game, but behind the three-point shooting of Iva Ciglar, the Golden Panthers reeled off 10 of the next 16 points to knot the contest back up at 16-16. Ciglar capped off the FIU scoring spurt when the junior point guard drained a pair of back-to-back treys, the last coming at the 9:13 mark. Florida International kept it close over the next few minutes and took its first lead of the night at 20-19 on a driving lay up from Fanni Hutlassa with just under seven minutes to go before the half. USA’s Jeanette Tucker later cut the deficit to one when she drained a three-pointer of her own from the left corner and Jones knocked down a jumper from the elbow at the 4:48 mark to put the Jags back on top (24-22).
After the Golden Panthers tied the contest back up on their next trip down the floor with four minutes, 11 seconds left in the period, both teams struggled offensively with neither team able to connect on a field goal the remainder of the half.
Nettles sent the Lady Jags into the locker room with a one point advantage (25-24) when the sophomore converted on one of her two attempts at the charity stripe with one minute, 45 seconds left before the intermission.
In the second half, South Alabama got off to a quick start, pushing its lead out to 35-28 after two straight treys from Jones and a Patrice Brunner bucket at the 16:32 mark. On FIU’s next trip down the floor, Asha Neal ignited a 14-2 run for the Golden Panthers over the next five minutes. Monika Bosilj later put Florida International up 42-37 after a pair of baseline jumpers.
From that point on, the Lady Jag slammed the door shut the rest of the way, holding Florida International to just five points on two made field goals the remaining 11 plus minutes of the game. In the final 11 minutes of the contest, the Golden Panthers were just 2-of-16 from the field and turned the ball over four times down the stretch.
With South Alabama trailing by five, Brittney Rutledge got things started for the Jaguar women recording a pair of back-to-back buckets with 11 minutes remaining. USA’s Nettles and Brunner then gave South Alabama the lead for good when the Jag combo executed the pick and roll to perfection. Brunner’s lay up with at the 9:12 mark put the Jags back on top, 43-42. Starling later ended any FIU comeback hopes when the junior drained her third three-pointer of the game with two minutes on the clock, this one coming from the left corner as the shot clock expired. The Starling bucket put USA back out in front by double digits at 54-44. After struggling from the charity stripe for most of the night, South Alabama was able to convert all but one of its free throw attempts in the closing minutes to seal the 15-point victory.
