Women's Basketball Opens Conference USA Play On The Road :: Lady Eagles play the first of three C-USA games on the road

Jan. 4, 2008

HATTIESBURG, Miss. -- The Southern Miss women's basketball team opens Conference USA play on the road when they travel to Orlando, Fla., to face UCF. The game is scheduled for a 6 p.m., central tip and will be broadcasted over WXHB-FM 96.5 with the "Voice of the Lady Eagles" Jason Baker providing play-by-play action with former coach Kay James as the color analyst.

Southern Miss (9-4) is coming off a 102-88 win over the Houston Jaguars in an exhibition game in which Pauline Love scored a game-high 24 points and pulled down 16 rebounds. Andrea Barber had 15 points to go with seven assists, while Liz Biland and Kendra Reed added 14 and 13 points, respectively. Southern Miss finished the game shooting 54.3 percent (38-of-70).

Love continues to lead the team in scoring and rebounding, averaging 16.7 and 10.6, respectively, while Eugene is averaging 11.1 points and Biland 10.2. Barber leads the team in assists with 5.1 per game.

As a team, the Lady Eagles are averaging 75.5 points and 41.6 rebounds, while shooting 47.7 percent from the field and 74.8 percent from the line. Southern Miss has connected on 75-of-206 threes for 36.4 percent.

UCF is 7-6, after a 65-43 win at Stetson. In that game, Chelsie Wiley and Marshay White scored 14 points apiece and Jasmine Stovall chipped in 12. Tia Lewis, the league leader in rebounds, hauled in a game-high 14 boards.

Knights coach Joi Williams is in her first season in charge of the Knights program and returns only two letterwinners from last year's team that finished 8-22. Lewis leads the team in scoring and rebounding, averaging a double-double with 13.5 points and 11.8 rebounds. Emma Cannon also averages a double-double with 11.3 points and 10.1 rebounds. Two other players also average double-figure scoring are Marshay white with 11.2 points and D'Nay Daniels with 10.5 points. The Knights have 10 freshmen on the 13-player roster.

As a team, UCF is averaging 70.4 points and 44.9 rebounds, while shooting 43.5 percent from the field and 61.4 percent from the line. The defense is holding its opponents to 38.8 percent shooting from the field and holds a plus-10.6 rebound margin.

Southern Miss leads the series with UCF, 9-0. The two teams met for the first time in 1980.

Following the UCF game, Southern Miss remains on the road for a pair of C-USA games at Tulsa (Jan. 11) and SMU (Jan. 13).