Box Score - South Alabama 65, North Texas 61 (.pdf)
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MOBILE, Ala. – Playing in the final home game of their career, seniors Mansa El, Camille Reynolds and Mary Nixon helped lead the University of South Alabama women’s basketball team to a 65-61 Sun Belt Conference victory over North Texas Saturday night at the Mitchell Center.
The senior trio combined for 44 points to lead the Lady Jags to the four-point victory. Mansa El paced all scorers with 19 point, and had six rebounds, three assists and three steals. El was 5-of-12 from the field and 8-of-12 at the charity stripe, including 6-for-8 in the final minute to preserve the victory. Reynolds – who had 14 points - was also 5-of-12 from the floor and hit four huge three-pointers – which tied a career high for the Rathdrum, Idaho, native. In the previous seven games, Reynolds had scored just 17 points. Nixon was 5-for-13 from the field and finished with 11 points and four steals.
“Seniors can go one of two ways on Senior Night,” South Alabama head coach Rick Pietri said. “They can be really good because they’re focus and juice is higher than it normally would be and sometimes the pressure will get to them and it goes the other way. But clearly, Camille, Mary and Mansa – from an offensive standpoint – shot a decent, reasonable percentage. They stepped up and made plays for us, and that’s what you need your seniors to do. This was the last memory these seniors will have in this building, and we talked about that pregame – whether you are a senior or not, everyone is going to have a senior night and I would think that on your Senior Night you would want it to be a good memory, so let’s make sure the seniors have a good memory. And the seniors made sure themselves, they did some good things tonight. So I’m happy that those kids get to go out of this building with a win, but we still have two games to play. We are going to enjoy this, though, tonight.”
Freshman post player Brianna Wright also ended the night in double figures with 10 points. Ronneka Robertson led USA on the glass with eight rebounds. After getting off to a slow start, the Lady Jags were able to finish 24-for-63 from the field for 38.1 percent.
USA (15-12, 8-10 SBC) will now close out the regular season on the road with a pair of road games, beginning with Western Kentucky on Wednesday night. Tip-off versus the Lady Toppers is set for 7 p.m. at E. A. Diddle Arena.
With the win, South Alabama secures at least the eighth seed in next month’s tournament. The Lady Jags hopes of climbing to the sixth seed still remain alive as Florida Atlantic fell to UALR on Saturday.
North Texas falls to 10-18 overall and 9-10 in the Sun Belt with the loss. Alexis Hyder registered her ninth double-double of the season with16 points and 12 rebounds. Hyder was 6-for-15 from the floor and 4-of-6 at the charity stripe. Senior post player Sara Stanley also registered double-digits on the glass with 10 boards. As a team, UNT held a 48-38 advantage in that department and pulled down 16 at the offensive end.
Desiree Nelson posted 10 points off the bench – all late in the second half – as the Mean Green outscored USA’s reserves 21-11. UNT’s leading scorer Loryn Goodwin was held to just seven points and junior guard Laura McCoy – who had 15 points versus the Jaguars in Denton, was held to just three points.
With the game tied at 6-6 with over four minutes to play, North Texas erupted for an 11-0 run over a three-and-a-half minute stretch. Hyder began the scoring for the Mean Green with a pair of buckets and carded seven of UNT’s 11 points during the scoring spurt. Stanley capped off the run and gave the visitors their largest lead of the night at 17-6 with a basket at the 9:53 mark.
El ended a nearly seven minute offensive drought for the Lady Jags with a runner in the lane with under nine to play in the half. The senior then drained a deep three on USA’s next possession and Wright hit one of two at the foul line to trim the deficit to five (17-12).
With just over four minutes, North Texas stretched its lead back out to nine (25-16) after buckets from BreAnna Dawkins and Stanley, but that’s when the Lady Jags turned up the defensive pressure, holding the Mean Green to a free throw and forcing four turnovers for the remainder of the half.
Wright’s jumper in the paint with just under four to play ignited a 15-1 run for USA to close the half. Nixon followed the Wright basket with two of her own and with two minutes, 16 seconds remaining, Reynolds cut the deficit to 26-25 with a step-back three. South Alabama finally took its first lead of the night on its next two possessions as El made a couple of outstanding passes to Wright in the post.
“(Mansa) was the catalyst,” Pietri said of the senior. “It’s rare for me to play somebody all 20 minutes of a half, but I couldn’t take her out. She was the one who was creating the positive energy for us on the court, I couldn’t afford to take her out. She has a lot of toughness and stamina, so she could manage that. Mansa stepped up when we needed somebody to step up and make a play for us she did it.”
Nixon then finished the run off with another bucket, this one coming in the final minute to send the Jaguars into the locker room with a 31-26 halftime advantage.
Riding the momentum that it had picked up at the end of the first half, South Alabama grabbed its first double-digit lead of the contest two-and-a-half minutes into the second stanza after a jumper from Reynolds to put USA up 39-28.
With under 14 minutes remaining in regulation, UNT’s Briah Blakely trimmed the Mean Green deficit to 45-37 with a jumper, but over the next three minutes, South Alabama responded right back with a 7-0 run and stretched its lead out to 15 (52-37) when Nixon followed her own miss at the 10:22 mark.
Leading by 16 (55-39) with just over eight minutes showing on the clock, South Alabama went into a bit of an offensive slump as it hit just one of its next seven shots over the next six minutes.
The Mean Green took advantage of the offensive slump by the Lady Jags and rattled off a 14-2 run over that stretch to narrow the deficit to 57-53 with two minutes, 48 seconds to go in the contest. Nelson sparked the rally as the junior guard posted all 10 of her points during the North Texas run. Hannah Christian’s bucket capped off the run for UNT.
However, USA ended the run on its next possession when Nixon found Robertson open in the lane for a jumper. The biggest defensive play of the night probably happened on the ensuing Mean Green inbound attempt as Reynolds stepped in front of Christian and stole the ball.
Forced to foul with under a minute to play, North Texas would send El to the line eight times. The senior would hit six of those and every one of her makes proved to be big as UNT would connect on two treys in the final 30 seconds. Covered by two Jaguar defenders, Goodwin drained the second with 14.8 left to cut the USA advantage to 64-61.
El though was fouled on the inbounds and calmly stepped to the line and hit one of her two attempts to make it a two possession game and seal the “Senior Night” 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: With the win, South Alabama improves to 8-14 all-time in the series versus North Texas. USA has won six of the last nine meetings in the series dating back to the 2006-07 season. The Lady Jags have also won four-straight in the series in Mobile. South Alabama’s seniors combined for 44 of the Jaguars’ 65 points. The 65 points were the most by USA since scoring 74 versus Troy on Feb. 6. The four three-pointers by Camille Reynolds tied a career-high for the senior. Reynolds – who had 14 points – had scored just 17 total points in the last seven games prior to Saturday night’s contest. With her 11 points, Mary Nixon has now scored double-figures in seven of her last eight games. The seven team-blocks were the second-most for South Alabama in a game this season. The 11 steals also marked the third time USA has done so in a game this season.
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