MOBILE, Ala. ? South Alabama, the fifth seed in this year’s tourney, used a second half rally Wednesday evening in the opening round of the 2008 Sun Belt Conference Tournament at the Mitchell Center to defeat Louisiana-Lafayette, seeded 12th.
“I thought our energy was good in the first half, it was our focus on the offensive end that wasn’t,” South Alabama head coach Rick Pietri said. “I thought we played tight. We were afraid of losing. In the second half, we relaxed a little bit and put up 36 points in the half. This is the post season and we are happy about the win.”
USA (20-10) will now face the Arkansas State, the No. 4 seed on Saturday at 3 p.m. in the quarterfinal round held at the Mitchell Center. The 2007-08 squad also becomes just the seventh Lady Jag team to win 20 games in a season in the 34-year history of the program.
Louisiana-Lafayette ends its season with an 8-22 overall mark with the loss.
Mobile native, Shakira Nettles led all scorers with a game-high 15 points, while also chipping in with six rebounds, four assists and three steals. Monique Jones also added 11 points and Patriece Brunner led all players with 12 rebounds, her eighth double-figure rebounding game of the season.
ULL was paced by Jasmine Barnes’ 13 points off the bench, while Nettles held the Ragin’ Cajuns leading scorer and Third Team All-SBC performer Alicia McDaniel to eight points on 3-of-19 shooting.
Both teams struggled to find the range offensively in the first period of play, shooting a combined 12-of-57 from the field. South Alabama held the lead early on at 7-3 after a Nettles jumper at the 12:34 mark of the first half. Louisiana-Lafayette grabbed the momentum heading into the locker room, outscoring the Lady Jags 15-6 the rest of the period to head into the intermission with an 18-13 lead.
The Ragin’ Cajuns were paced offensively in the first 20 minutes of play by Barnes’ six points off the bench. Nettles also had six points for USA to lead the Jags in the first stanza.
Both teams connected on just six field goals each and shot in the low 20’s. USA was 6-of-29 (20.7 percent), while ULL was 6-of-28 (21.4 percent). The 13 first half points for the Lady Jags was a season-low for the period, eclipsing the previous mark of 17 scored against Denver back on Jan. 27) The field goal percentage was also a new low for the period.
In the second half, ULL expanded its lead out to eight (25-17) on a McDaniel’s bucket with just 17 minutes remaining in the game. USA kept battling though and narrowed the deficit to 25-23 with a run of six straight points, the last two coming on a Brunner lay up with 13 minutes to go. After a Sonora Edwards basket on ULL’s next trip down the court to put the Cajuns up by four, the Jag offense seemed to find its touch.
Nettles led the way again for the Jaguar women over the next six minutes, scoring seven of USA’s 13 points during a 13-4 run for the Jags. The sophomore guard tied the contest back up at 31-31 on a pull up jumper at the 8:20 mark and then gave South Alabama the lead, one it would not give up, with a bucket a minute later. Jones capped off the USA run and put the Lady Jags up 36-31 when the senior knocked down a trey from the right wing with 6:12 left on the clock.
McDaniel ended the Jag run when the senior drained a trey of her own on ULL’s next trip down the floor, this one coming from the top of the key as the shot clock expired. USA was unable to pull away over the next several minutes until with just over two minutes left in regulation, Jeanette Tucker knocked down a running one-hander of the glass to ignite a six-point spurt. Jessica Starling, as she did against Florida International this past weekend, seemed to take the air out of ULL’s sail when the junior nailed a three-pointer from the top of the key during the spurt to put USA up 43-36.
South Alabama never allowed Louisiana-Lafayette to draw any closer the rest of the way, holding on to take the nine-point victory.
