MOBILE, Ala. - The University of South Alabama women's basketball team dropped 64-61 decision on a three-pointer from Denver's Emiko Smith with 0.7 seconds on "Senior Night" Wednesday evening at the Mitchell Center.
"We were able to give ourselves a chance to win, coming back from a late seven-point deficit to tie it," South Alabama head coach Rick Pietri said. "One of the things that our kids is taught is that when you lunge for the ball that leads to a layup for the other team. We lunged to make a steal and that didn't happen. (Brianna) Culberson then had a clear path to the basket, which we left a shooter to stop her, giving (Smith) a wide-open look and hit a three. We made a careless error at the end of the game and it cost us, but frankly, that has been a microcosm of our year. We have made careless mistakes on the defensive end and many times they have cost us opportunities to win games."
With the loss, South Alabama (14-15, 9-9 SBC) will now wait to find out who its first round opponent will be in next month's opening round of the Sun Belt Conference tournament to be held in Hot Springs, Ark. After getting off to the program's best conference start at 7-0, the Jags closed out the regular season dropping nine of their last 11 games.
"This has been the strangest roller coaster ride this season," Pietri said. "We started miserably. Then had a fantastic middle and we have finished miserably. It's just been a wild ride. Now, we move on to the postseason. One of the strange things about postseason play is that strange things sometimes happen. Hopefully, we can make something positively strange happen for our team in the postseason."
Denver - which was 24-of-38 from the floor for the game - improves to 16-12 overall and 11-6 in league action. The 62.3 field goal percentage was a season-high allowed by the Jags to an opponent this season and a new Mitchell Center record for an opponent, eclipsing the previous mark of 58.9 percent recorded by Florida International back on Jan. 4, 2001.
"(Denver) is a team that shoots close to 50 percent on the season," Pietri said. "In women's basketball, the average is 40. That shows you how good they are at finishing. They are an exceptional team at finishing plays and they finished exceptionally well tonight. There are things, defensively, that I am very disappointed with in our team right now, but you have to give (Denver) credit for their performance tonight."
Shakira Nettles - playing in her final home game - led South Alabama offensively with 23 points on 10-of-17 shooting, including a pair of three-pointers. USA also received a 20-point performance out of junior forward Christian Shelter, who had 21 points of her own.
The Pioneers were led offensively by Kaetlyn Murdoch's game-high 25 points. Murdoch - who entered the game ranked sixth nationally in shooting - was nearly perfect from the floor, hitting 11 of her 13 attempts against the Jags. Culberson also finished in double digits with 12 points. Smith - who had the game-winner - was 2-of-3 from the field to finish with six points.
The key stat of the night was in the rebounding category, where Denver held a 39-17 advantage. Of the 39 rebounds, 33 came at the defensive end of the floor, limiting second chance opportunities for South Alabama.
Both clubs came out hot from the floor during the opening minutes of the game, but with USA holding an early two-point advantage five-and-a-half minutes in, the DU's Britteni Rice ignited a 10-0 run with a three-pointer from the left wing. Denver continued its balanced scoring attack during the run as Sarah Feeney, Cublerson and Ashly Robinson each recorded a bucket.
South Alabama tried to hang around over the next several minutes. With 10:12 to go in the period, Nettles drove the lane and converted the conventional three-point play for the Jags to trim the deficit to 23-18, but over the next four minutes, the Pioneers went to Murdoch four-straight times and grabbed its largest lead of the night at 31-24 on a layup at t he 6:41 mark.
USA was able to cut the deficit to seven and headed into the locker room trailing 31-24 on a Brittney Rutledge jumper that just beat the horn.
Coming out of the intermission, South Alabama matched Denver bucket for bucket over the first couple of possessions. After a Morriah Smith jumper cut the Pioneer to 35-28 two-and-a-half minutes into the final period, the Jags found their touch from the outside. Nettles
and Shelter drained back-to-back treys over the next minute to pull South Alabama to within one 35-34. Then after another Murdoch basket, Nettles tied the contest back up at 39-39 and again connected from downtown, this one from the right corner off an inbounds play as the shot clock was about to expire. Prior to the three-straight triples, USA had been 0-for-11 from the arc .
Nettles broke a 42-all tie when the senior drained a pair of jumpers in the lane to give South Alabama a four-point advantage with less than 10 to go. Denver came right back though and recaptured the lead with six unanswered.
Trailing by seven with under seven minutes left on the clock, another senior came up big when Morriah Smith stole the ball and raced down the court for a layup to put USA back on top, 51-50 at the 6:52 mark.
The Pioneers again wasted little time regaining the momentum and reeled off seven more unanswered points, five of which coming from Robinson. The senior forward knocked down pair of free throws with 4:03 left to give Denver a 57-51 lead.
South Alabama would not go away though and trailing by six with less than two to go, Shelter drained a three-pointer from the left wing at the 1:47 mark and then with less than a minute to go, tied things back up at 59-59 with another trey.
On the ensuing Pioneer possession, Culberson was fouled with five seconds left on the shot clock and calmly sank both free throws to give Denver the two-point lead. Trailing 61-59, Nettles drove toward the basket and dished off the ball to Shelter who tied things back up with an 8-foot baseline jumper with 5.4 seconds remaining. Coming out of a 60-second time out, the Pioneers inbounded the ball to Culberson who drove down the court toward the lane and found Smith open on the right wing for the game winner. For Smith, it was just her second field goal of the contest. She ended the night with eight points, six assists and five rebounds.
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: Nine of the last 12 games in the series have now been decided by six points or less. Denver improves its record in the all-time series to 15-6 and 6-4 in Mobile. Prior to the game, South Alabama honored its three seniors - Shakira Nettles, Morriah Smith and Shaniece Brunner. The game also marked the first time this season that USA has had two players score 20-points or more in the same game. The 62.3 field goal percentage by the Pioneers was a season-high allowed by the Jags to an opponent this season and a new Mitchell Center record for an opponent, eclipsing the previous mark of 58.9 percent recorded by Florida International back on Jan. 4, 2001. After getting off to the program's best Sun Belt start at 7-0, South Alabama has now dropped nine of its last 11 games. USA will be either the sixth or seventh seed in next month's conference tournament.
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