MOBILE, Ala. - The University of South Alabama women's basketball team used a nearly flawless performance at the foul line during the final four minutes to hold off Southern and pick up a 64-55 victory over the Jaguars at the Mitchell Center Saturday evening. Over the final 4:06 of the game, USA connected on 13 of its final 14 attempts at the charity stripe.
"We have been struggling to finish games. We have had three games that we couldn't finish, but today we finished," South Alabama head coach Rick Pietri said. "The way we finished was at the free throw line. Our kids stepped up and hit some critical free throws, which ultimately gave us the win."
USA (4-5) will now open Sun Belt Conference play when the Jags welcome UALR to the Mitchell Center. Tip-off is set for Wednesday at Noon. The loss for Southern was just its second of the season and dropped the Jaguars record to 4-2 on the season.
Tashley Gaines led all players with a career-high 16 points on 5-of-7 shooting from the floor. The sophomore was also 5-of-7 from the free throw line and finished with four assists and two blocks. Gaines has now recorded double figures in three of her last four games.
USA's Siedah Banks and Christian Shelter also posted double figures in the win, finishing with 13 and 10 points, respectively. Banks hit two three-pointers on the night, including a crucial trey from the right corner with four minutes, 41 seconds to go in the game after Southern had pulled to within three.
"That was a huge basket, because at the time we were only up by three," Pietri said of the late bucket by Banks. "When you're faced with adversity, and this team has faced a lot of it and hasn't reacted well to it, you need somebody to rise up and make a play for you and "Sie" did that for us. She rose up and made a play for us."
Southern was paced offensively by Ashley Augerson and Hannah Kador, who each recorded 11 points apiece.
SU held a 45-39 advantage on the glass in the loss - including 22 rebounds at the offensive end of the court. However, South Alabama didn't let the Jaguars capitalize as Southern was only able to get eight second-chance points. USA allowed 17 second chance points and 23 offensive rebounds to Memphis on Wednesday in a five-point loss.
With the score tied at eight just over six minutes gone in the game, USA reeled off a 15-2 run over the next seven minutes - including a stretch of 10 unanswered points to begin the run. Coming out of a media time out, Gaines came off a screen and took a pass from Brittney Rutledge and knocked down an eight-foot jumper to give the Jags a 23-10 lead at the 7:26 mark.
After a Tenesha Brown three-pointer on Southern's next possession, Gaines again ignited a run for USA, this one an 8-2 spurt that saw the Jags take their biggest lead of the first period at 31-15 with two minutes, 30 seconds to go before intermission. After a trey from Augerson, South Alabama headed into the locker room with a 13-point advantage.
Coming out of the break, the two clubs traded baskets for the first couple of minutes. With South Alabama holding a 16-point lead (36-20) Augerson ignited a run for the visiting Jaguars. Augerson's bucket came at the 18:06 mark and over the next five-and-a-half minutes, Southern out-scored USA 11-3 to cut the deficit in half. Tiffany Fosters' jumper with 12 minutes, 18 seconds to play trimmed USA's lead to 39-31.
Southern continued to chip away at the South Alabama lead, but the Jaguar women looked as if they were going to regain control as Banks hit one of her two attempts at the foul line and Nettles drained an off-balanced pull up jumper at the line to stretch the lead back out to seven with under seven minutes to go.
The visiting Jaguars would not go away and back-to-back buckets from Augerson made it a one possession game (48-45) with five minutes, 15 seconds remaining. That was as close as Southern would get the rest of the way as Gaines found Banks open in the corner on the ensuing possession for the pivotal three-pointer.
SU then sent South Alabama to the line and the Jaguars took advantage. Prior to the hot streak at the charity stripe during the closing minutes, USA had hit just five of its previous nine attempts at the linee. South Alabama only let Southern get as close as four in the final minutes, eventually pulling away for the nine-point victory.
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).
NOTES: USA's Tashley Gaines recorded a career-high 16 points. Her four assists also tied a career high set last season against Louisiana-Monroe. After not recording double-figures the first 36 games of her collegiate career, Gaines has now had double-figure out puts in three of her last four games. The 18 turnovers by South Alabama were a season-high for the Jags. The 13 points by Siedah Banks were a season-high for the Jag point guard. Southern was just 6-for-31 in the first half versus South Alabama for 19.4 percent shooting. That was the lowest tally by a Jag opponent during the opening 20 minutes of play to date this season.
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