Box Score - South Alabama 60, Florida International 42 (.pdf)

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MOBILE, Ala. – After getting off to a slow offensive start, the University of South Alabama women’s basketball team bounced back to pick up its fourth Sun Belt Conference win of the season with a 60-42 victory over Florida International Saturday evening at the Mitchell Center.

With the win, South Alabama head coach Rick Pietri now sit just one win shy of tying former Lady Jag coach Charles Branum’s program mark of 182 for career wins at USA.

USA (12-7, 4-3 SBC) will now head to Troy, Ala., to take on in-state rival Troy on Wednesday night.  Tip-off versus the Trojans is set for 7 p.m. at Sartain Hall.

Christian Shelter led the Lady Jags with 14 points and eight rebounds.  Sarda Peterson and Lauren Walker also chipped in with nine points apiece, while Veronica Cherizol posted a career-best eight points off the bench. 

“One of the things that I think is strength for our team is the fact that we have kids coming off the bench that can contribute in very positive ways,” South Alabama head coach Rick Pietri said.  “That showed well tonight in particular. From an offensive standpoint, Vannessa (Simmons), Lauren (Walker) and Veronica (Cherizol) all made plays offensively and “CC”(Cylenthia Kennon) was so solid defensively. Those four, in particular tonight, did a really nice job for us off the bench. Having a bench like that is able to make sure that we have enough gas in the tank to finish games and we certainly finished this one well. We really did not shoot it as well from the perimeter as we’ve been shooting it. Fortunately, we were able to overcome that by making enough plays inside the arc. We really came out and rebounded the ball and it’s the second game (in a row) we’ve done this. In the early part of the conference season we were getting destroyed on the glass.”

Senior point guard Siedah Banks also provided another solid effort for the Jags, as she recorded seven points, six rebounds, five assists and four steals.

With the loss, FIU falls to 7-14 on the season and 2-5 Sun Belt.   The Panthers were led offensively by Jerica Coley’s 15 points.  The freshman was 6-of-15 from the field and also tied for top team honors in rebounding with five boards.  Rakia Rodgers also ended the night in double digits with 10 points and five rebounds of her own. 

USA, who entered the game ranked second in the nation in three-point field goal defense, defended the arc well, holding the Panthers to just 2-of-18 shooting from the line.  The Lady Jags also held a huge advantage on the glass, out rebounding FIU 41-28, including 17-9 on the offensive glass.

After being held scoreless over the first five-plus minutes of the contest, Shelter finally put the Lady Jags on the scoreboard with a pair of free throws at the 14:46 mark. 

With USA struggling to score early on, FIU led by as much as five on a couple of occasions.  Taylor Ammons finally snapped a string of nine-straight misses from the field when the junior laid the ball off the glass with 13 minutes, 24 seconds on the clock.  The Ammons basket also sparked the Jaguar offense and ignited a 15-4 run over the next seven minutes.  During the run, Cherizol and Walker came off the bench to combine for 11 of USA’s 15 points. 

Walker later tied the contest back up at 9-9 with a three-pointer from the right wing.  The trey was the first and only of the half for the Lady Jags, who came into the game leading the Sun Belt in that category.  Following the three-pointer from Walker, USA grabbed its first lead of the night when Banks drove the lane and found Cherizol open under the basket for an easy layup at the 8:48 mark. Two-and-a-half minutes later, Walker capped off the Jaguar run and put USA up 17-11 with a layup of her own when Cylenthia Kennon found the Cabot, Ark., native cutting through a hole in the Panthers’ match up-zone defense..

Over the next several minutes though the offensive struggles returned for the Lady Jags and Florida International began to claw its way back.  With South Alabama holding a 19-13 advantage with a little over four minutes to go before the half, Rakia Rodgers’ bucket sparked a 9-2 FIU run.  Coley got a three-pointer from the right wing to roll in a minute-and-a-half later and after another bucket from Coley, Liene Jekabsone’s foul-line jumper put the Panthers back out in front,22-21 with just over a minute remaining on the clock.

South Alabama quickly regained the lead during the final minute of the period.  Ammons followed her own miss and laid the ball off the glass on USA’s ensuing possession and then with less than 20 seconds to go, Simmons drove toward the basket for a left-handed layup of her own to increase the Jag advantage to three.  The Jags were able to get a stop at the other end of the floor and headed into the locker room with the 25-22 lead.

After getting off the slow start to begin the game, South Alabama managed to recover and shoot 34.5 percent from the floor on 10-of-29 shooting in the first half.  However, USA was just 1-for-11 from the arc.  Led by the first-half play of Cherizol and Walker, the Lady Jag out scored FIU’s reserves 15-2 in the opening half and 22-7 for the game.

Holding the slim lead to start the second period of play, South Alabama rattled off six unanswered points to open the half and extend its lead out to nine 31-22 with just over 15 minutes remaining.

After shooting 43 percent in the first half, FIU came out sluggish at the offensive end to start the second stanza.  The Panthers did not record their first points of the half, until Rodgers turnaround jumper in the lane with 14 minutes, 29 seconds left.  Over the first nine-plus minutes of the second stanza, FIU would hit just two of its first 17 attempts from the floor.

Following the Rodgers’ bucket, Peterson sparked another run for the Lady Jags, this one a 10-2 spurt over a three minutes stretch.  The junior guard, who had been held scoreless in the first period, came alive during the run, recording eight of USA’s 10 points.  Peterson drained a deep trey from straight-away at the 14:!4 mark to begin the scoring for South Alabama and after another three-pointer, this one from the right corner, the Ft. Myers, Fla., drove the lane and scooped the ball off the glass to put the Lady Jags up 41-26 with just over     11 minutes remaining.

With South Alabama again struggling to find its shooting touch with under eight minutes left on the clock, FIU attempted to make one last charge, but the Panthers were also unable to convert some open looks and only managed to get as close as 11 (47-36) after a free throw from Elisa Carey at the 5:15 mark.

USA put the game away during the final three minutes as the Lady Jags closed out the contest by outscoring the Panthers 13-6 to end the game.

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).