Box Score - Southern Mississippi 71, South Alabama 51 (.pdf)

HATTIESBURG, Miss. – Junior guard Colby Davis and redshirt senior guard Juliann Miller combined for 32 points Sunday afternoon, but the University of South Alabama women's basketball team fell 71-51 at Southern Mississippi at the Reed Green Coliseum.

Davis was 4-of-7 from the field and hit all six of her free throw attempts.  As a team, South Alabama was 16-of-22 from the charity stripe.   Miller was 6-for-11 from the floor and a perfect 3-of-3 at the foul line.  She also pulled down eight rebounds, including seven on the defensive glass in 36 minutes of action.  

"We've challenged Colby Davis to be a double-figure scorer for us," South Alabama head coach Terry Fowler said.  "I think that Jools (Juliann Miller) has come up and made what I call 'senior plays' for us in our last two ball games.  I thought tonight, that she kind of spear-headed our offense.  It's just about us getting everything together at the same time.  Our guards were there tonight, but we didn't have it in the post.  We've got to have some balanced scoring.  I was also pleased with the play of India Hall tonight.  I thought she did a great job in the post."

The 16-point effort was one point shy of tying a career high for Davis, while Miller set new high marks in both points and rebounds.

True freshman India Hall finished just outside double figures as she had nine points and three rebounds.  

The Jaguars (2-4) will now break a week for finals before returning to action when they host UAB on Sunday, Dec. 13.  Tip-off versus the Blazers is set for 2 p.m. at the Mitchell Center.  Live stats and web streaming for the contest can be accessed at www.USAJaguars.com.  Fans can also keep up with in-match updates by following action on the program's twitter account @SouthALWBB.

Southern Miss improved to 5-2 on the year with the win and placed five players in double figures, marking the first time an opponent as done so since last year's season finale against Troy (3/8/15).  

Jerontay Clemons led the way with 17 points on 7-of-11 shooting.  Brittany Dinkins was 6-of-12 from the floor and recorded 15 points to go along with six assists.  Jayla King and Caitlin Jenkins each ended the contest with 11 points and seven rebounds, while Keri Jewett-Giles notched her second double-double of the season, registering 10 points and dishing out a career-high 11 assists.  

As a team, Southern Mississippi had 22 assists on its 28 made field goals.  The 11 assists by Jewett-Giles were the most by an opponent since Georgia State's Alisha Andrews, who had 10 against the Jaguars on Feb. 17, 2015.  

The Golden Eagles also forced South Alabama into 25 turnovers, which led to 32 points for USM.  Southern Miss carded 14 steals in the contest, led by Jewett-Giles' six.  USM also turned the ball over just 13 times.

"We finally make free throws tonight, but we turn the ball over, which is something we've been pretty good lately about not doing as much," Fowler said.  "I thought in the first half, we did an excellent job.  Southern Miss really hadn't shot the ball all that well lately, especially from three, and they are able to get off to a good start.  I think our players just got lulled into hanging our heads a little bit and we just never recovered from that."

Southern Mississippi shot 45.9 percent from the floor in the win, connecting on 28 of its 61 field goal attempts.  USM, which came into the game shooting 28 percent from the three-point line was 7-of-12 on the night versus the Jaguars.  

Chyna Ellis tied the contest up at 9-9 when she knocked down a 12-foot baseline jumper with less than three to go in the opening period of action, but Dinkins would spark an 8-0 Golden Eagle run.  Dinkins connected from both the left and right wings to begin the scoring for USM.  The junior guard then forced a Jaguar turnover and in transition dished the ball off to Clemons for a layup to give Southern Miss a 17-9 advantage with just over a minute remaining in the quarter.

Dinkins and Clemons were a combined six-of-nine in the period and had 14 of USM's 19 points.  

Davis hit a runner along the left baseline in the closing seconds of the first to trim the deficit to six (19-13).

Dinkins drained her third trey of the afternoon to start the second quarter, but South Alabama came back with a pair of three-point plays of its own to cut the deficit to 22-19.  Miller drained a three from the left corner on USA's first possession of the second period and India Hall then converted a three-point play after being fouled with just over eight minutes showing on the clock.  

Including the first quarter, the Jags connected on seven of their first 12 field goals, but following Hall's and-one play, South Alabama would hit just one of its final 12 shot attempts of the first and suffer a five-minute scoreless drought to close the second period.

During that stretch, the Golden Eagles would go on to outscored the Jaguars 14-2 and extend to 14 (36-22) at the half.  

Miller converted USA's lone field goal over the final eight minutes with a and-one play of her own to pull the Jags within four (26-22) at the 5:07 mark, but Tajany Veiga and Jewett-Giles knocked down back-to-back treys to start a run of 10 unanswered points for the Golden Eagles to end the half.

USA looked as if it were going to end its scoreless streak just before the half as Genesis Perrymond appeared to have found the 6-3 freshman open in the post for a layup, but after the officials looked at the replay, the bucket was waved off as it had not left Hall's hand in time.

Southern Miss shot 46.4 percent, hitting 13 of its 28 shot attempts, including six of nine from beyond the three-point line, while South Alabama was 8-for-27 for 29.6 percent and was just 1-of-6 from the arc.  Dinkins led all scorers with 13 points in the half on 5-of-10 shooting.

A little over two minutes into the third, Hall ended a string of 10 missed shots with a basket.  Davis – who had 10 of her 16 points in the third period – brought the deficit under double digits (40-31) with two free throws with five minutes, 35 seconds to go in the quarter, but coming out of the media time out, the Golden Eagles would take control for good and quickly race back out to a double-digit lead.  

Following the time out, King hit a pair of free throws.  USM then turned up its defensive pressure as Veiga and Dinkins each recorded a steal, which led to two Veiga layups.  Within a span of 24 seconds, the Golden Eagles lead had grown to 15 (46-31) with four minutes, 31 seconds to go in the third quarter.  

"I thought that there was about a three-minute stretch there in the third quarter where we turned the ball over against Southern Miss' press and they were able to score in transition," Fowler said.  "That was a big difference and provided some separation for them.  I think fatigue also played a part in that, but we have to do better about that."  

From there, South Alabama would get no closer than 14 the rest of the way as Southern Miss eventually led by as much as 29, before picking up the 20-point victory.

For more information about South Alabama athletics, check back with www.usajaguars.com, and follow the Jaguars at www.twitter.com/USAJaguarSports. Season tickets for all Jaguar athletic events can be purchased by calling (251) 461-1USA (1872).

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