Feb. 24, 2008

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Box Score

HATTIESBURG, Miss. - Southern Miss women's basketball team closed out the game on a 15-0 run, posting a 72-57 win over Tulane and helping lone senior Liz Biland go out on a high note in her last game in Reed Green Coliseum.

"This was a very special day, it was an emotional day for our lone senior Liz Biland," coach Joye Lee-McNelis said. "I think anytime you get that opportunity to honor someone is a special way, its more emotion to the game."

Tulane (14-13, 4-10) jumped out to an 8-2 lead and basically held the lead almost the entire first half with the help of forcing Southern Miss into 18 first half turnovers. However, the Lady Eagles were able to keep within striking distance with the help of connecting on 48 percent from the field, while Tulane shot only 26.5 percent.

"We got off to an ugly start, not a bad start, but an ugly start," said McNelis. "It may be one of the ugliest games we've played in a half of basketball. We didn't want the ball to score, we kept giving it to the other team and the other team kept giving it to us."

The Green Wave's pressure defense caused problems for Southern Miss early and often as Tulane capitalized by scoring 13 points off the 18 Southern Miss miscues.

"It was a defensive battle because neither team could score," McNelis said. "We kept throwing it to the wrong color jersey and it was ugly. We were lucky to go in at the half with a one-point lead."

Trailing 26-21 with 1:55 to go before the half, Southern Miss then outscored Tulane 6-0 to end the half.

Tulane scored first to open the second half, before the Lady Eagles used a 10-2 run to open up a seven-point lead, 37-30. The Green Wave answered with a run of its own, and out scored Southern Miss, 23-11, pushing its lead to five, 53-48, over a span of 7:41.

"I do think midway through the second half, I thought our players stepped up and made baskets and defensive stops when we had to. We made baskets when we had to. We executed our half court offense almost to perfection to score on setting screens. We got great play out of Pauline Love. She probably rebounded the best she has in a month. Stephanie Helgeson has continued to score points for us and be a difference maker."

Love recorded her 17th double-double of the season with 21 points and 16 rebounds. Helgeson scored 17 points, followed by Reed with 15 and Amber Eugene chipping in 13.

Ashley Langford led Tulane with 16 points and Brittany Lindsey adding 14.

With 7:05 remaining in the game, both teams traded baskets over the next three minutes. With the scored knotted at 57-57, Southern Miss scored the last 15 points, keyed by a two three-pointers by Kendra Reed and a couple of free throws.

"What I can say about our team as a whole is when it was time to win, we stepped up and made baskets and executed our game plan." McNelis said.

Southern Miss closes out its regular schedule with two critical games at Memphis Feb. 28 and at UAB, Mar. 1.