Box Score - UALR 49, South Alabama (.pdf)

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MOBILE, Ala. – The University of South Alabama women’s basketball team held a three-point lead early in the second half, but a nine-minute scoreless drought proved costly as the Lady Jags fell, 49-40 Sun Belt Conference West Division leader UALR in its conference home opener Saturday at the Mitchell Center.  

“Here’s the truth. (UALR) is statistically the second best team in the country in field goal percentage defense, and we helped to reinforce that figure tonight,” South Alabama head coach Rick Pietri said.  “They’re a great defense.  In the first half, we were able to do enough things.  In the second half, we didn’t have much of a response.  We had a response when we got ten behind.  The problem with being 10 behind to this team is it’s like being 20 behind to another team.  They grind it out offensively and take 25 seconds off the shot clock before they take the shot.  That being said, we were starting to make a move, but we just couldn’t get a big play when we needed one.”

USA (7-5, 0-3 SBC) will now break for a week for the Christmas holidays before returning to action when the Lady Jags welcome Arkansas State on Saturday, Dec. 29 at 5:05 p.m.  The 0-3 start to the league play is the first for the program since the 2006-07 season.  South Alabama began the conference season with a 0-4 mark that year.

With the win, the Trojans improve to 10-1 overall – their ninth-straight victory – and 3-0 in the Sun Belt.

UALR – who entered the week ranked second in the nation in field-goal percentage defense – led the Jaguars to 27 percent shooting (17-for-63).  USA was just 7-of-31 from the field in the second half for 22.6 percent – a season low for the second half.  

“We knew we would struggle to score.  Everybody does against these guys.  What’s frustrating is that we had plenty of opportunities to score, and we had a couple situations where we made really bad decisions in terms of executing what we were supposed to do in certain situations.  When you combine those things, it’s a bad combination.  They’re really good defensively, and we’re not making makeable plays that are there for us and we’re making some poor choices as well.  So it wasn’t a really good combination there.  That being said, we fought back at the end.  We got it within six and had the ball, and we just couldn’t make the plays we needed to make.  I thought defensively, for the most part, we did what we needed to do.”

The Trojans finished at 38.5 percent for the game, but were 10 for 24 in the final period of play for 41.7 percent.  Taylor Gault led UALR with 13 points, while Hannah Fohne recorded eight points and a game-high 16 rebounds, 14 coming on the defensive glass.  Janette Merriex also chipped in with eight points.

USA entered the game averaging nearly eight three-pointers a game – tops in the SBC – but were held to just 2-of-13 shooting from beyond the arc – 0-for-5 in the second half.

Brianna Wright led USA with 10 points off the bench.  The freshman post player was 5-of-10 from the field and pulled down six rebounds, five on the offensive end of the floor.  Mary Nixon returned to the lineup for USA after missing the UCF game on Wednesday and had eight points in her return.  Ronneka Robertson and Veronica Cherizol led USA on the glass with nine boards apiece.  For Robertson, it was her seventh-straight game of the season with seven or more rebounds and her 10th with over six.

Both teams struggled to get any offense going early on in the matchup between the top two defensive teams in the Sun Belt.  

Fohne provided a spark for UALR early as she had six of the Trojan’s first eight points and nine rebounds in the first eight minutes of play.  She went on to pull down 12 of her 16 boards during the first 20 minutes of action.  

USA was the first one to jump out more than two possessions as the Lady Jags grabbed a 9-4 advantage on a reverse layup from Nixon at the 11:22 mark of the first half.  South Alabama later extended its lead out to seven (15-8) after a pair of layups.  Robertson found an open lane to the basket with just under seven minutes remaining.  On the ensuing Trojan possession, Diamonisha Sophus came up with a loose ball and went coast-to-coast for a bucket.

UALR answered right back with a run of its own a minute later.  Gault – who had missed her first five shots from the field – finally knocked down her first basket with five minutes, 11 seconds to go in the period.  Gault’s bucket ignited an 11-3 spurt for the Trojans over the next three minutes.  Taylor Ford capped off the run and put UALR back out in front with a trey from the left wing and a jumper along the right baseline with under two to play.

The two clubs traded three-pointers on each of their next possessions and with under 30 second showing on the clock in the half, Mansa El found Cherizol open under the basket for an uncontested layup that sent USA into the locker room with a 23-22 advantage.

Coming out of the intermission, Nixon posted a pair of buckets on USA’s first two possessions, the last one giving the Lady Jags a 27-24 advantage at the 19:17 mark, but that would be South Alabama’s last points over the next nine minutes and begin a 13-minute stretch for the Jags without a made basket.  Over that stretch, USA would go on to miss its next 16 field goal attempts and turn the ball over four times.  

UALR took advantage of the Jaguars’ offensive struggles, rattling off a 14-0 run to retake the lead.  Taylor Ford found Jakeisha Wells open down low for a layup to begin the run.  Merriex and Gault then combined for the Trojan’s next 10 points and Ford capped off the scoring and gave UALR an 11-point advantage (38-27) with a pair of free throws at the 10:35 mark.

On South Alabama’s next possession, El hit a pair of free throws of her own to end the scoreless streak for the Lady Jags, but USA’s next field goal didn’t come until with just over six minutes to play after a steal and layup by Sophus.  

Over the next five minutes, USA was able to narrow the deficit to as little as six on two occasions, the last coming on an offensive put back by Wright with one minute, 14 seconds left in regulation, but Merriex hit all four of her foul shots in the final minute to help preserve the win for the Trojans.  

Gault and Merriex each had eight points apiece in the final 20 minutes of action.  After hitting just two of her 10 attempts in the first half, Gault was 4-of-6 from the field in the second stanza.  All eight of Merriex’s point came during the final period.

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:  With the loss, South Alabama falls to 0-3 in the Sun Belt, the program’s first 0-3 start to league play since the 2006-07 season.  USA is also now 11-8 in the all-time series and the Trojans have won five-straight in the series.  The Jaguars are now 18-11 all-time in SBC home openers and 8-5 in that category under head coach Rick Pietri.  With her nine rebounds, junior forward Ronneka Robertson has now posted six or more boards in 10 of her last 11 games, including seven or more in each of the last seven games.  After missing Wednesday’s game at Central Florida, Mary Nixon also return to action versus UALR.  Diamonisha Sophus’ suspension was also lifted before the game.  The 40 points by the Lady Jags against the Trojans tied a season-low and the 17 second-half points were also a new low mark for the Jaguars in the final period. The loss to UALR marked the first home loss of the season for USA.

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