Jan. 10, 2008

HATTIESBURG, Miss. -- - The Southern Miss women's basketball team hits the road for a pair of Conference USA games, traveling to Tulsa to face the Golden Hurricane Friday, before heading to Dallas, Texas to play SMU in a nationally televised game on ESPN2 Sunday. Friday's game is scheduled for a 7 p.m., tip, while SMU begins at 2 p.m. Both games will be broadcasted over WXHB-FM 96.5 with the "Voice of the Lady Eagles" Jason Baker providing play-by-play action with former coach Kay James as the color analyst.

Southern Miss (10-4, 1-0) is coming off a 71-54 win at UCF in the conference opener. In that game, Pauline Love recorded her 10th double-double of the season with 23 points and 19 rebounds. Tanesha Washington came off the bench to score a season-high 13 points, Kendra Reed had 12 and Stephanie Helgeson chipped in 10. Andrea Barber dished out a season-high 12 assists.

Love continues to lead the team in scoring and rebounding, averaging 17.1 and 11.2, respectively, while Amber Eugene is averaging 11.1 points and Reed 10.0. Barber leads the team in assists with 5.6 per game.

As a team, the Lady Eagles are averaging 75.2 points and 41.6 rebounds, while shooting 47.5 percent from the field and 75.0 percent from the line. Southern Miss has connected on 78-of-215 threes for 36.3 percent.

Tulsa (5-9) is coming off a 75-62 overtime win over SMU in its conference opener, in which Tatum Beer led the way with 19 points, followed by Larrissa Williams and Chanel Johnson with 18 points apiece. Williams also hauled in a game-high 19 boards.

Williams leads the team in scoring and rebounding with 12.6 points and 10.4 rebounds and Beer is next, averaging 10.1 points.

Golden Hurricane coach Charlene Thomas-Swinson is in her third season in charge of the Hurricane program. Swinson returns only three letterwinners from last year's team that finished 11-19. Larrissa Williams leads the team in scoring and rebounding, averaging a double-double with 12.6 points and 10.4 rebounds. Tatum Beer is next on the team, averaging 10.1 points. The Hurricane has five freshmen on the 10-player roster.

As a team, Tulsa is averaging 57.6 points and 43.0 rebounds, while shooting 37.0 percent from the field and 59.1 percent from the line. The defense is holding its opponents to 36.1 percent shooting from the field and blocking 6.9 shots per game.

Tulsa leads the series with Southern Miss, 4-0. The two teams met for the first time in 2006. Twice the teams have played in the Conference USA Tournament.

Following the Tulsa game, Southern Miss travels to Dallas, Texas to face SMU Sunday in a nationally televised game on ESPN2.