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Women's Basketball Wins Fifth Straight At Home, Defeats UCF 63-50
Feb. 4, 2006
HATTIESBURG, Miss. - The Southern Miss Lady Eagle basketball team won its fifth consecutive game at home tonight, defeating UCF 63-50 before 989 in Reed Green Coliseum. With the win, Southern Miss improves to 10-11 overall, 7-3 in Conference USA. UCF falls to 5-16, 3-7. "We've made tremendous strides as a team," Southern Miss Head Coach Joye Lee-McNelis said. "Things are coming together. I was pleased with our press defense tonight. Our defense created some easy offense tonight." Southern Miss' Ashley Boehnel opened the game with a three-pointer, and connected on another three, giving Southern Miss a 10-6 lead with 15:56 to play. With Southern Miss leading by one, 18-17, with 7:19 to play, the Lady Eagles used a 9-0 run, sparked by five points from Kristin Chaney, to take a 27-17 lead with 4:59 remaining, before taking a 32-25 advantage at halftime. UCF cut the lead to five, 36-31 with 17:52 to play, but Southern Miss then used a 4-0 run to take a nine-point advantage, 40-31. The Lady Knights again cut the lead to five on two more occasions, the last coming at 42-37 with 13:56 remaining. From there, the Lady Eagles used an 8-0 run to take a 50-37 advantage with 11:08 to play, capped by a three-point basket by Kendra Reed. Southern Miss then led by double-digits for the remainder of the contest, leading by 16, 63-47 with 44 seconds to play, before winning by 13. UCF out-shout Southern Miss 41.7 (20-48) to 35.6 (21-59) percent. The Lady Eagles held a 41-34 advantage in rebounding, including a 14-6 edge on the offensive glass. Boehnel and Liz Biland each had 17 points for Southern Miss, while Reed finished with 10. Amber Eugene finished with a game-high 15 rebounds, which tied her career-high. Chaney finished with a career-high nine points.
Shelby Weber finished with 14 points to lead UCF, while Francine Houston added 12 and Keunta Miles netted 10. Southern Miss returns to action on Monday, Feb. 6, in a 7 p.m., contest at SMU. |
