Feb. 17, 2007

Box Score

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- - Southern Miss made 6-of-6 free throws in the last 44.9 seconds, preserving a 60-55 win over UAB Saturday evening at Bartow Arena.

Amber Eugene led Southern Miss (14-13, 8-6) with 18 points, followed by Kendra Reed with 17. Liz Biland hauled in 10 rebounds and Kristin Chaney dished out nine assists.

UAB's Diamond Rogers led the Blazers with 16 points, Carmen Guzman had 13 and Britney Jones chipped in 10.

"To go on the road and beat one of the top teams in our league is a huge win," Head Coach Joye Lee-McNelis said. "Our players have done an incredible job of stepping up and being committed. I believe we were properly prepared mentally and physically and I thought we executed."

Southern Miss scored 20 points off 20 UAB turnovers and finished the game shooting 33.3 percent, while UAB shot 37.9 percent. UAB held the rebounding edge, 39-36. Southern Miss connected on all 14 free throw attempts.

UAB (15-11, 10-4) opened the game scoring the first five points, before the Lady Eagles answered back with five unanswered points. UAB regained the lead on a Guzman free throw, but Reed hit her second three-pointer, giving Southern Miss an 8-6 lead.

UAB's Britney Jones connected on a deep trey to put the Blazers up, 9-8; however, the Eagles answered with a Chaney three-pointer. Southern Miss was able to push its lead to eight, 24-16, at the 8:02 mark, before UAB scored four-straight points, cutting the lead to four, 24-20. Southern Miss led 31-26 at the half.

Southern Miss used a 9-2 run to open the second half, bumping its lead to 12, 40-28. UAB responded with a 16-4 run, tying the game at 44-44. During that run, the Lady Eagles went almost five minutes without a score. The Lady Eagles finally ended the drought when Reed canned a three-pointer at the 9:00 mark in the game.

"We went into a stretch where we hit that panic-mode," McNelis said. "We gave up a three late in the game. We had segments in this game where their 2-3 zone gave us some problems. We could not get anything rolling offensively. The key for us wining this game was that we made our free throws."

The Golden Eagles run their lead back to eight points, 54-46, but UAB came right back with seven straight points to cut the lead to one, 54-53, with 1:31 remaining in the game. From there, Southern Miss got a defensive stop and Chaney hit the first of six straight free throws.

Southern Miss closes out the regular season at home, hosting East Carolina on Thursday, Feb. 22 at 7 p.m., and Marshall on Saturday, Feb. 24, at 2 p.m.