Women's Basketball Team Knocks Off UCF Knights :: Lady Eagles snap four-game skid

Jan. 25, 2008

HATTIESBURG, Miss. - Four Lady Eagles tallied double digit scoring, helping Southern Miss (11-8, 2-4) snap a four-game losing streak with an 84-62 win over UCF Friday.

Pauline Love and Stephanie Helgeson recorded double-doubles each, with Love scoring 20 points and pulling down 10 rebounds, while Helgeson scored 14 points and hauled in a season-high 14 rebounds. Tanesha Washington, earning her first start of the season for an injured Liz Biland, responded with 17 points and Brittany Johnson came off the bench to score 11 points. Andrea Barber just missed a double-double with 12 assists and nine points.

"I thought we did a great job with our contain defense," head coach Joye Lee-McNelis said. "We worked hard on that this week. We did make some poor decisions in our transition game when UCF made their run. You have give UCF credit because they hit we allowed them to take."

Emma Cannon led the Knights (8-11, 1-5) with 12 points, followed by D'Nay Daniels with 11 and Marshay White chipped in 10 points.

"I really proud of our defensive effort," McNelis said. "We were able to make some defensive stops and turn those opportunities in points going the other way."

Southern Miss opened the game, scoring the first eight points before UCF got on the board with a three-pointer. The Lady Eagles then reeled off 14-straight points for a commanding 21-3 lead, eight minutes into the game.

Southern Miss maintained a substantial lead through the first half, finishing with a 45-24 halftime lead.

The Lady Eagles pushed their lead to 28 points, 57-29, before the first media timeout. From there, UCF mounted a comeback using a 26-12 run that cut the lead to 11 points, 69-58, with 3:57 remaining.

Southern Miss closed out the game with a 15-4 run.

The Lady Eagles finished the game shooting 49.2 percent, after shooting 57.6 percent the first half. Southern Miss also won the battle of the boards, 43-36.

Southern Miss continues its five-game home stand, hosting East Carolina, Jan. 31, in a 7 p.m., tip.