Feb. 9, 2008

UAB vs. Southern Miss box score  |  Final Stats

HATTIESBURG, Miss. - The UAB women's basketball team fell to the Southern Miss Lady Eagles, 77-64, Saturday evening at the Reed Green Coliseum. The Blazers were paced by senior guard Crystal McFadden with 21 points, while fellow senior Diamond Rogers grabbed a team-high 12 rebounds.

UAB moves to 11-12 overall and 7-3 in Conference USA. Southern Miss improves its overall record to 14-9 overall and 5-5 in league play.

"Tonight was a hard loss for us," said UAB head coach Audra Smith. "We came out slow in the first half and couldn't get any shots to fall for us.

"We picked things up in the second half, but everytime we made a run, they would counter it. We had a hard time stopping Southern Miss' post players from scoring."

UAB struggled in the first half, hitting just 23.7 percent of its shots. The Blazers improved by shooting 47.2 percent in the second half and shot 35.1 percent for the game. UAB hit 30.8 percent from beyond the arc and made just eight trips to the charity stripe, making four of them (50.0 percent).

McFadden's 21 points came on 10-of-22 shooting, including one bucket from beyond the arc. McFadden also added four rebounds and a team-best four assists for UAB.

Freshman guard Amanda Peterson tallied 15 points on five treys, while junior guard Britney Jones had 11 points and a team-best three steals. Rogers scored seven points to go along with her 12 boards for the Blazers.

Southern Miss shot 52.1 percent for the game, including 55.0 percent in the second half. The Lady Eagles hit 50.0 percent from three-point range and 80.0 percent from the free throw line.

Sophomore center Stephanie Helgeson led Southern Miss with 26 points on 9-of-16 shooting and 8-of-9 from the charity stripe. Sophomore forward Pauline Love had a double-double with 18 points and a game-high 12 rebounds.

UAB will return to action on Thursday when it travels to Tulsa, Okla. to take on the Tulsa Golden Hurricane. Tip-off is set for 7:00 p.m. CT at the Donald W. Reynolds Center.