Feb. 10, 2006

Box Score

Complete Box Score
Download Free Acrobat Reader

HATTIESBURG, Miss. - Southern Miss snapped their five-game home win streak against Tulsa, 76-57, Friday night at Reed Green Coliseum.

With the loss, the Lady Eagles drop to 10-13 overall, and 7-5 in Conference USA. The Golden Hurricane improve to 18-4 overall, and 9-2 in C-USA.

Ashley Harrell led all scorers with 19 points, and Kendra Reed led the team in rebounds with six. Five players for Tulsa scored in double-figures, with Megan Moody leading the team with 17 points. Jillian Robbins recorded a game-high 13 rebounds.

"Tulsa is a very good team," Head Coach Joye Lee-McNelis said. "Jillian Robbins is a solid player that we knew was going to get her points and rebounds, but we couldn't let everybody else step up and have a big game; and that's exactly what happened."

Tulsa opened the game with a 4-0 lead before Southern Miss scored their first bucket on a Liz Biland layup with 16:45 left in the first half, making the score 4-2.

After increasing their lead to 10-3, the Golden Hurricane would go on an 11-0 run before the Golden Eagles scored again at the 10:06 mark, 21-6. Shooting only 19.4 percent (6-31) in the first half, Southern Miss would go into the half down, 38-24. Ashley Harrell led the Golden Eagles at the half with nine points.

"I thought we played scared in the first half," McNelis said. "I didn't think we played with the poise that we've played with at home before. I challenged them at the half, and I think the energy level began to rise before we came back out for the second half."

The Golden Hurricane scored five straight points to begin the second half, with the score 43-24 at the 18:28 mark. Tulsa would lead by as much as 21 points in the second half, 60-41 at the 7:06 mark, though Southern Miss attempted to battle back into the game, cutting the lead down to 10, 66-56, at the 2:21 mark. Tulsa, however, would refuse to let go of the lead, closing out the game, 76-57.

Tulsa out-shot Southern Miss, 52.2 percent (24-46) to 25.7 percent (18-70). Neither team held the edge in rebounds, as both recorded 39.

"The thing that this team showed tonight was the fight that we've had in us all year," McNelis said. "We cut the lead down to 10 in the second half, and I thought that at that point we would have a chance to win it. But unfortunately, we made two defensive mistakes which led to Tulsa increasing their lead back to 14 points. However, I do think that my team played extremely hard in the second half, continued to fight the rest of the game."

The Lady Eagles next game is Feb. 17 against Memphis in a home contest set for a 7 p.m. tip off.