Feb. 17, 2007

Final Stats

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - The UAB women's basketball team lost a heartbreaker to Southern Miss Saturday evening, 60-55, in Bartow Arena during its last home game of the 2006-07 season. With the loss, the Blazers still remain in second place in the Conference USA standings at 10-4, just one game behind Tulane, who fell to East Carolina on Saturday to move to 11-3 in the league.

"It's a tough loss," said UAB head coach Audra Smith. "I thought we fought hard and the ladies gave me everything they had. That is all I can ever ask for."

"You have to give credit to Southern Miss. They came out ready to play and were ready for us. They did a good job against us."

UAB jumped out to a quick 5-0 lead on a three-pointer by senior Candace White and a pair of free throws by junior Diamond Rogers. The Golden Eagles came back and took their first lead of the game, 8-6, at the 15:42 mark on a three-point shot by Kendra Reed.

Southern Miss extended its first-half lead to as much as eight points, 24-16, at the 8:02 mark on a three-point bucket from Liz Biland. The Blazers came back to cut the Golden Eagles' lead to five at the half, 31-26, courtesy by of a jumper by Rogers with 17 seconds remaining the in first period.

The Golden Eagles went on a 9-2 run to open the second half to hold a 12-point lead at the 17:22 mark, 40-28. UAB slowly, but surely, chipped away at the double-digit deficit and tied the game at 44-all on a layup by sophomore Britney Jones with 9:50 remaining in the contest.

Southern Miss answered back with a 7-0 run to jump back out to an eight point lead, 54-46, with 4:05 left in the game. The Blazers fought back to within one point of the Golden Eagles, 54-53, with 1:43 remaining on the clock, but Southern Miss went 6-6 from the charity stripe down the stretch to hold on for the five-point win, 60-55.

"In the first half, we couldn't settle down and relax," said Smith. "Then, we didn't start the second half with a sense of urgency, which is something that I wanted them to play with all night."

Rogers led all Blazers with 16 points on 7-of-14 shooting, while also adding six rebounds, four blocks, two assists and two steals. Senior Carmen Guzman tallied 13 points and grabbed seven rebounds on the night.

Jones was the third Blazer in double figures with 10 points, two rebounds and three steals. Junior Christon Ingram added four points to UAB's total, but contributed 10 rebounds against the Golden Eagles.

Amber Eugene sunk 8-of-8 from the free throw line to lead her to a team-high 18 points for Southern Miss, followed closely by Reed with 17 points, including five buckets from three-point range.

Overall, UAB held the shooting advantage, hitting 37.9 percent of its shots compared to 33.3 percent for Southern Miss. The Blazers put six three-pointers through the net, but the Golden Eagles hit eight from long range for a 40.0 percentage on the night.

"This is a disappointing loss, but our season's not over," said Smith. "We have two more regular season games left. We have Rice on Thursday, and we are going to have to go out there and take care of business."

The Blazers will gear up for a two-game stint in Houston next week, as they face Rice on Thursday and Houston on Saturday in the final two games of the regular season.