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.
South Alabama Sports Update 2009-09-18
Baseball
Due to wet field conditions South Alabama head baseball coach Steve Kittrell has been forced to postpone the start of fall practice until Sunday afternoon at the earliest. The Jags were expected to start their 45-day practice period Thursday afternoon. Kittrell made the decision to postpone due to NCAA rules that only allow 45 days for team workouts during the fall, and those begin with the teams first official practice.
Depending on the weather, the Jags may start practice on Sunday at 2pm.
Basketball
Men’s
The matchups have been announced for the second annual South Alabama Thanksgiving Classic. Coach Ronnie Arrow announced that Utah Valley, Georgia State and Alcorn State will play in the tournament on November 25 and 26 at the Mitchell Center.
Wednesday, Georgia State and Utah Valley will begin the tournament at 5pm followed by South Alabama and Alcorn State at 7pm. On Thursday, the consolation game will start at 2pm and the Championship game will begin at 4pm.
Women’s
Dr. Joel Erdmann, South Alabama’s Athletic Director, announced on Tuesday that Lady Jag coach Rick Pietri has received a contract extension through the 2013 season. Last season the Lady Jags finished 21-11, which is the first back to back 20-win season by the Lady Jags in 21 years. They also advanced to the semifinal round of the conference tournament for the first time since 2003 and only the second time since 1989.
On February 14th, Pietri grabbed his 150th career win at the collegiant level and ranks second in overall wins in South Alabama’s all-time coaching chart with 154 and ranks first in Sun Belt victories with 75.
Soccer
Kickoff of Friday’s soccer match between USA and Georgia State has been moved up from 6pm to 3:30pm due to a change in venue. Originally scheduled for a 6pm kickoff at GSU’s home field, they have moved to Atlanta Silverback’s Park due to unplayable conditions. Siverback’s Park has synthetic turf similar to USA’s football practice field.
Coach Varga was very grateful to head football coach Joey Jones for allowing the Soccer team to also use the football practice field to practice this week. He said, “We were very fortunate Coach Jones allowed us to practice on their field this week. I’m very grateful he allowed us that opportunity.”
Volleyball
This weekend will be the final tournament of the regular season for the Lady Jaguars before they begin their Sun Belt schedule. They are traveling to Prairie View A&M for the Lady Panther Invitational and will take on Nicholls State at 1pm on Friday then will take on Prairie View A&M and Arkansas-Pine Bluff on Saturday.
Lady Jags Fall At Home For First Time This Season
The USA Lady Jags would jump out to a quick lead making the first basket but that would be their only lead of the game, falling to the Lady Blue Raiders of Middle Tennessee State 80-57. This loss puts the Lady Jags at 11-4 for the season and 2-2 in the Sun Belt Conference.
After USA made the first points of the game, the Raiders would go on a 25-8 run over the next seven minutes to take control of the game. MTSU had the hot hand early making their first seven shots which included three 3-point field goals, a couple by Brandi Brown early in the half. While USA was cold and only shot 2 of 9 during the same stretch. At the end of the run MTSU was up 25-11.
They did not stop there, Chelsia Lymon would make two 3-pointers in the closing minutes, one of them at the buzzer, to lead the Blue Raiders into the locker room with a 19 point lead, 40-21. Lymon’s buzzer beating shot was the ninth of the first half for the Blue Raiders on 13 attempts.
The Lady Jags came out of the locker room and tried to rally, cutting the lead down to 15 at 50-35 about five minutes into the second half. But the Blue Raiders would not let the Jags get any more momentum. The rest of the half was all downhill until the Jags were down by 30. USA would trim the lead back down to the 23 point margin of victory for the Blue Raiders.
Coach Pietri was in disbelief a few times at the Jags shooting and defensive woes. He made several substitutions and defensive changes in the second but the Blue Raiders would exploit different holes in the defense and continue scoring.
Alysha Clark lead the game in scoring for MTSU with 23 and adding 18 rebounds for a double double going 8-19 from the floor and 7-9 from the charity stripe. Other top scorers for MTSU were Brandi Brown scoring 17 on 6-8 shooting from the floor and 5-7 from outside the arc with 5 rebounds, Jackie Pickel scoring 14 on 5-9 shooting and 4-7 from 3-point range, and Chelsia Lymon with 11 points on 4-6 shooting and 3-4 from 3-point range. MTSU ended the game shooting 12 of 22 from outside the arc.
USA was lead in scoring by Jessica Starling who had 18 points on 5-14 shooting and hitting 3 of 7 from 3-point range and making all five of her free throws. Seidah Banks was the next highest scorer with 9 on 4 of 4 shooting and hitting her only attempt from 3-point range. Karina Sproal had 8 points, six of them on two early 3-pointers in the first half, but could not hit any of her later shots until two free-throws late in the second half.
MTSU shot 45% for the game from the field to a woeful 27% for USA, with a blistering 51% to 28% in the first half. The Blue Raiders also lead in 3-point FG percentage 55% to 28%, going 9-13 in the first half. MTSU lead with points in the paint 24-14 and points off turnovers 19-10. But USA did outscore MTSU on 2nd chance points 24-14 and fast break points 4-0. Plus USA’s bench scored 19 compared to MTSU’s bench scoring only 7 points for the game.
The Lady Jags will travel to Monroe, Louisiana to take on Louisiana-Monroe on Wednesday with Tip-off set for 7:05pm.
One high point to the game was that the Thunderjags.com co-founder Matt had a visitor come sit next to him during the first half.
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| Matt with South Paw at the Lady Jags game. |