Box Score - South Alabama 78, Louisiana-Monroe 54

MOBILE, Ala. – Behind a season-high 22 points and 11 rebounds from Christian Shelter, the University of South Alabama women’s basketball team picked up its second-straight Sun Belt Conference victory with a 78-54 win over Louisiana-Monroe Saturday evening at the Mitchell Center.  The 11 rebounds by Shelter were also one shy of tying a career-best for the senior forward.

USA (11-7, 3-3 SBC) will now take a week’s break before returning to action when it hosts Florida International.  Tip-off versus the Golden Panthers is set for Saturday, Jan. 22 at 5:05 p.m. at the Mitchell Center. 

Along with Shelter, Taylor Ammons also posted a double-double in the win, her second of the season, as she finished with 10 points and 11 rebounds.  Lauren Walker chipped in with 11 points of her own on 4-of-7 shooting, including a 3-for-6 performance from the three-point line.  Sarda Peterson also added 10 points.

ULM dropped to 8-10 on the year and 2-3 in the league with the loss.  Sannisha Williams and Elizabeth Torres each ended the night with a team-high 13 points for the Warhawks.

One big key for the Lady Jags in the victory was on the boards as they out rebounded the Warhawks 46-32.  Louisiana-Monroe entered the game leading the Sun Belt on the glass and holding a +10.5 advantage in the rebounding department on its opponents.

“In practice and at shoot around today, we talked about the fact that the team we were about to face plays incredibly hard and physical and our team responded really well,” South Alabama head coach Rick Pietri said.  “From a rebounding standpoint, Louisiana-Monroe is one of the best rebounding teams in the league. We did a great job on the glass holding them to seven offensive rebounds. We really stepped up to the challenge of being as physical on the glass tonight. I’m very appreciative of our effort in that area. We executed well on offense and I thought we defended really well. The thing I liked in defending is not only did we defend well, but we came down with the rebound to finish the defensive possession. I’m really proud and grateful for the effort that our team gave defensively, particularly on the glass.”

Led by Torres who recorded five of the Warhawks’ first seven points, Louisiana-Monroe jumped out to a 7-4 advantage with just over three minutes played in the contest.  After a three-pointer from the top of the key by Torres, South Alabama came right back and answered with nine unanswered points.  Peterson began the run with a pair of free throws at the 15:44 mark and after a jumper by Ammons, Shelter completed the scoring for the Jags with a pair of baskets.  The Mobile native’s three-pointer with 14 minutes, six seconds remaining in the half capped off the run and put USA out in front 13-7.

Shelter and Vannessa Simmons later increased the Lady Jags’ lead to eight (20-12) with less than 12 minutes remaining in the period.  Shelter connected on her second trey of the first half at the 12:39 mark and Walker then found Simmons open for a layup when the Jags were able to beat the Warhawk’s full-court press a minute later.

ULM’s Williams narrowed the South Alabama lead to 25-21 when the senior knocked down a pair of buckets, the last coming with six minutes on the clock.  From that point on, the Jaguar defense would stiffen and hold the Warhawks to just two points for the remainder of the half.  ULM hit just one of its final nine shots to end the period.

USA took advantage and closed strong as they ended the half on a 13-2 run.  During the scoring spurt, the Lady Jags used a balanced attack as five different players scored.  Shelter – who led all scorers during the first 20 minutes of play with 12 points – drained a 10-foot base line jumper to give South Alabama its first double-digit lead.  After a basket from ULM’s Williams with a little less than three minutes on the clock, the Lady Jags’ full-court press caused more problems for the Warhawks, leading to two more points for USA.  After trapping the ball in the left corner, Cylenthia Kennon deflected a ULM pass, which Mary Nixon came up with for an easy layup.  On South Alabama’s next possession Simmons hit a pull up jumper in the lane and then at the 1:10 mark of the half, Peterson drained a trey five feet beyond the arc to give USA 38-23 lead. 

After getting off to a slow start, South Alabama ended up shooting 45.5 percent in the first half, knocking down 15 of its 33 attempts from the floor.  USA also held a 23-15 advantage on the glass and outscored ULM 16-8 in the paint.

Holding the 15-point lead coming out of the intermission, the two clubs exchanged baskets over the first five minutes of the second stanza.  With a little over 15 minutes remaining in the game, Peterson connected again from long range and increased USA’s lead to 52-31.

ULM was able to narrow the gap to 15 (53-38) after an Ashleigh Simmons layup, but the Lady Jags came right back with an 8-0 run that stretched their lead back out to 61-38.  The 23 point lead was the largest to that point for South Alabama and was led by Walker, who had five of the Jags’ eight points.  The Cabot, Ark., native began the scoring with a trey of her own at the 10:15 mark and later finished off a fast break layup from Siedah Banks a minute later.  Banks ended the night with another solid effort, recording seven points, five rebounds and four assists.

Facing their largest deficit of the game, the Warhawks began to chip away at the Jaguar advantage, hitting three of their next four opportunities at the charity stripe with less than eight minutes to play.  The three free throws also began a 13-5 run for Louisiana-Monroe over the next three-and-a-half minutes.  During the ULM run, USA went cold and got sloppy with the ball, recording just one field goal and turning the ball over seven times, including a stretch of four-straight possessions.

That would be as close as the Warhawks would get the rest of the way as the Lady Jags closed out the final four minutes with a 12-3 run.  Over the final minutes of the game, USA was 6-of-8 at the free-throw line.

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).