Lady Jags Basketball To Host Southern Miss Tonight At Mitchell Center
The South Alabama Women’s basketball team will host regional rival and Conference USA foe Southern Miss Friday evening at the Mitchell Center for a 7:05pm tip-off.
The Lady Jags have began the season with a 2-0 start after they picked up a 59-43 win over Tennessee State earlier this week.
Southern Miss enters the game after falling to Hampton back on November 9 in it’s season opener 78-41.
“The thing that we have to be concerned about is this is a team that beat us last year,” Lady Jaguar head coach Rick Pietri said. “Their backcourt basically killed us last year, Tanecka Carey and Jamierra Faulkner. They put up 26 and 20 (points) on us, and they’re back. We’ve got to find a way to manage them without ignoring the other players on their team who are capable as well. They’re coming off what I’m sure to them was a disappointing loss and they’ve had a whole week to stew about it, which as their next opponent, is something I’m not very excited about.”
“Nonetheless, I know that they’ll be ready to play, and, based on their success versus us last year in a very close game, I know that they’re not going to have any fear of us, so we’re going to have to do the best we can to defend and find ways to score to give ourselves a chance to win.”
Southern Miss leads the all-time series between the two schools 15-10 while coach Rick Pietri is 7-2 against USM in his career. Last season the Jags fell in Hattisburg 67-62. When the Jags and the Golden Eagles last met in MObile, the Jags defeated them 95-61 in the 2010-2011 season.